2014 Pumpkin Plan Reveal

Happy October 1st!! The month has arrived! It's an exciting day for us today as it's finally time for us to reveal the plans for this year's PUMPKIN YARD DISPLAY. Yay!

Before we get to the goods, how about a little walk down memory lane (plus an introduction to pumpkins of the past for any newbies to the blog)?

We've always loved Halloween around here. It's the anniversary of Collin and I's first date (I have no idea if that one is grammatically correct, but let's go with it), I've always loved carving pumpkins, and fall is my favorite season. See how it all just comes together?

Back in 2011, I decided we needed to make it into something bigger. We'd carved creative pumpkins each year, but I needed something more. Sometime that summer, I got it in my head that we should do something like the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip snowmen. And...well...a tradition was born. Now it's something we look forward to all year.

That first year, we stuck to the inspiration and carved up a nice group of pumpkins with an homage to Calvin and Hobbes...

2011 Pumpkin Display ... Pumpkin Massacre

In 2012, there was a lot of debate about what to do. Should we repeat the year prior? Should we try to come up with new scenes that would fit the original thought?

We ultimately decided that we needed to move on from that original theme and try something new and our own. At that point, we knew there would be something different every year. We polled a few friends, and came up with the plan for that year...


2012 Pumpkin Display ... Classic Monsters

The pumpkin skeleton was my favorite to carve. 

Last year, we tricked out our lawn to Disney. It was a crazy race to the finish with carving that resulted in a few woodland creatures being scrapped from the final display. Still...a total of 10 faces and several small animals were finished.

2013 Pumpkin Display ... Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

And now the time has come to start getting things rolling for this year. Collin and I picked up some spray paint for this year's plan last weekend and worked out a few of the details for the remaining supplies we need to purchase.

The layout has been drawn and we will need 28 large pumpkins to make it all happen. I'm going to be on the hunt for the perfect pumpkins in the next few weeks. We didn't manage to grow any of our own this year due to a sprinkler system debacle that resulted in having our entire lawn torn up and the system redesigned. Budgets are tight this year, so we're hoping to be able to pick up quite a few of them from willing donators. The rest will have to come from the store.

But...let's get down to brass tacks. It's time to stop being coy and dish it out.

Are you ready for this year's theme? It's going to be "awesome"...

.
.
.
.
.
.
.

Source

That's right! Everything will be awesome at our place this Halloween because we're carving up a yard display full of characters from The LEGO Movie!

Source

I've been building my secret Pinterest board full of ideas for nearly three months now. I've been giddy with excitement. It's going to be really fun. All of the main characters will be there.

We'll be starting active preparations of the display on the 25th and carving will start very shortly thereafter. It's a little tricky this year since Halloween is on a Friday, but we've learned some tricks to help keep our carvings fresh. No mold or saggy pumpkin faces around here!

Keep checking back during the month for progress. And if you're local, make plans to swing by and see us on Halloween night! We'll have the yard all decked out and we'll be out on the porch with our bowls of chili handing out candy and enjoying all the cute kiddos in costume. We do so love Halloween!