I volunteered to help my youngest daughter (9) carve pumpkins with her class. I like pumpkin carving and I like children. I must say, I do not like being the only parent to volunteer. Out of 27 students. We had a total of 160 children (3rd and 4th grades) each carving a pumpkin. We carved from 12:00 - 3:00. It would not have been so bad but we were short on adult volunteers and on pumpkin carving tools. We had plenty of spoons, scoops etc. but not nearly enough of those little saw like carving tools that make it easy for the kids to carve. So, we ended up having the adults do much of the actual decorative carving. The kids scooped out the guts, drew the faces and mostly had them carved by the adults. I felt bad cause many of them really wanted to do it themselves but we simply did not have enough time or tools. Anyway, everybody got done and they will look great. On Friday evening the school is hosting a pumpkin parade/haunted house/family fun night. They have done this the past 2 years and donate any extra money raised to a local charity. The teachers decorate the second floor of the school as a haunted house, have fun, non-scary activites on the first floor and sell baked goods etc. I must say they do a fantastic job on the haunted house considering that at 3:00 it is classrooms and by 6:30 it is haunted. It is a fun time for the kids and they love recognizing their teachers dressed up as witches, vampires etc. The first floor remains totally non-scary for any younger kids so they also have plenty to do. Tonight I am frosting cupcakes to look like pumpkins for the bake sale. The original recipe was for pumpkin cupcakes by my DD(9) and DS (11) both vetoed that so we are doing vanilla with the orange frosting and a piece of pretzel stuck on top for a stem. They were on the front of Family Circle magazine and seem perfect for this. I have not been too into Halloween this year just cause I have been so busy with so many things but this is getting me in the mood. I will probably get the kids to help me decorate the house this weekend and maybe even make a few new decorations for the front windows.

On the heat contest, we definitely have not even needed to turn the heat on this week. It has been in the 70's this week so it is very warm in the house. My son begged me to turn on the air conditioner last night - he claimed he was too hot to sleep. I told him to put on his ceiling fan and open the window. If we aren't using the heat, we certainly do not need the air conditioner. I loved our last energy bill $148.00. It may seem high to some but this is a low as it can go up to $300 or more during the heat of summer or the dead of winter. Three cheers for keeping the heat and air off!