All Things Pumpkin

We have been a little pumpkin crazy here this weekend.

We did P is for Pumpkin in school last week and are continuing it through this next week. So over the weekend, we did a few fun pumpkin activities. Of course to start, the girls helped carve their jack-o-lanterns.

Naturally Daddy did most of the work, but they did help quite a bit, especially with creative direction.

Miss helped me season some pumpkin seeds for roasting. I’m actually not a fan of pumpkin seeds, but I thought it would be a fun thing for the girls to do. We made some with just salt and some with salt and brown sugar and cinnamon. They turned out okay.

I know Miss enjoyed helping me make them. And she said she liked eating them, though she didn’t eat more than one of each flavor. Lass wouldn’t even try them.

I’m not sure that the result was worth the time I spent cleaning off the darn seeds to get them ready to roast (is there some trick to this that I’m completely missing?). I think next time I’ll just have the girls clean the seeds themselves.

But that’s not all the pumpkin-y goodness we’ve got going on around here.

I am sometimes a fan of a pumpkin spice latte, so I decided to use this recipe to make my own crock pot pumpkin spice syrup today. It’s yummy and will be good in coffee and smoothies. I also soaked some pepitas to make spiced pepita milk.

A week or so ago, I did not know what a pepita is (a pumpkin seed without the shell, FYI). Then I saw the recipe and had to try it. I use almond milk in my coffee, and thought this would be a fun alternative for fall, so I made some tonight.

It’s so yummy I can’t wait to try it in my coffee.

I’m also planning to make pumpkin spice smoothies and paleo pumpkin pancakes for breakfast tomorrow.

We’re reading pumpkin books and doing pumpkin crafts and singing pumpkin songs. I was going to make some pumpkin pies, but I decided to wait until Thanksgiving for those.

Like I said, pumpkin crazy over here.

 

Miss asked to make pumpkin cookies to eat after trick-or-treating, but I drew the line at that. I’m pretty sure we won’t be needing cookies to eat after tromping through the neighborhood gathering a bucket-full of sugary treats on Thursday night.