Pumpkins, Pumpkins Everywhere!

That time of the year has come around.

The house smells amazing right now.

Normally, when we carve pumpkins I am too grossed out by the pumpkin "guts"

to even think about roasting the seeds. Boy, have I been missing out...

We never did this in my childhood but doing it now,

I feel nostalgic about it and I don't really know why.

Doing something I've never done before, only read about or saw on TV, and

yet I feel like it's something I did with my mom every year, just the two of us, on a

Sunday afternoon before taking a walk down a red and orange-leafed tree lined street.

I get that feeling often about a lot of things... I wonder what that means?

My girls helped me sort through and pick out the seeds...

Kate got pumpkin guts on her hands and flung it off... it landed on Ella.

Although Kate would've been THOROUGHLY grossed

out if it would've been on her, she thought it was funny on Ella.

Roasting the seeds is worth doing if only for the smell you get wafting through the house.

It's almost a pity that I waited til 1 am to do it and no one is up with me to appreciate

the smell and this amazingly good peppermint mocha coffee I'm thoroughly enjoying.

Everyone's asleep, well, everyone except for Kate and me.

Kate's watching The Great Pumpkin for the 3rd time tonight...

the first time she saw it, she giggled whenever someone said

Charlie 'cause that's her brother's name.

Charlie and Eric carved their pumpkins while I was gone to church with the girls tonight...

I arrived at the tail end of them perfecting their masterpieces...

I'll give you a sneak peek but you have to wait 'til Sunday to see the actual lit-up

Jack o' lanterns when it gets dark... You see, we have a contest every year on our

street and they get VERY competitive...

well, at least my husband and a certain blond that we all know and love do.

Charlie was getting frustrated because his little hands started to hurt from cutting the thick pumpkin.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

-Preheat oven to 300 degrees

- First rinse seeds in cold water to remove pumpkin guts. I used a colander...

- Next melt about 2 teaspoons of butter and coat the seeds.

Lay them in a single layer on a cookie sheet.

-Sprinkle some salt and bake for 35-40 minutes.

Make sure sure you turn them every 10ish minutes...

Soon, you will smell the heavenly, nutty aroma and your taste buds will do a little happy dance.

Be sure you check often and don't burn them...

The final touch I added was a little bit of cinnamon and a sprinkle of sugar...

Oh man... SOOO good!

Enjoy!!