Happy Halloween, The Smashed Pumpkins and Other Stories from the Zoo

This morning was really rough. I was going to write about Monkey’s temper tantrum and violent behavior, but something even more alarming happened to us last night.

I woke early, before six so I could read my bible and pray the rosary. I like to do this before anyone else gets up. However, this morning I wasn’t able to have my typical “me time.” Kitty, Monkey and Bear all climbed in bed with me last night. And when I woke up, Monkey was also awake. While I was downstairs brewing my coffee I heard Monkey exclaim from upstairs, “Something happened to our pumpkins! They are gone!!” About 30 seconds later Monkey, Parrot and Kitty ran downstairs. I went outside to take a look at our pumpkins and saw them smashed in the street. When I went inside and told the kids they all started crying. “Shit!” I thought. This is not going to be a good Halloween.

Goose was upstairs getting ready for school so I ran up and told her to come down and feed the kids breakfast. I was going to go for a little walk. I grabbed my coffee and headed down the street. That is when I saw a half of a pumpkin smashed down the street, but I could not figure out where it came from. After picking it up and examining it I realized it was one of ours. “Hmmm,” I thought. “Were we targeted? If so, why?”

When I got back inside I talked to Goose about the kids in the neighborhood. She informed me that none of the kids on her bus know where she lives. So that ruled out bullying.

Once the kids were consoled and I told them that I would bake the pumpkin and make goodies out of them they cheered up and I was able to send them off to school.

While taking Monkey to preschool I noticed that there were more smashed pumpkins in front of other homes. “Strange,” I thought, getting curiouser and curiouser. So on the way home from school I drove around the neighborhood. This is what I found. Seven houses including ours got Jack o’ lanterns smashed. Every single one had either outdoor toys in their yard or a swing set that was visible from the street. You can see our swing set from the street. I concluded that some young punks decided to make Halloween miserable for little kids. I wonder how many more small children were in tears this morning. It just makes me sick!

A friend of mine on Facebook told me to tell the kids that they did a wonderful job on their Jack o’ lanterns and somebody was jealous, so they should pray for the person or people who smashed the pumpkins. That is a wonderful idea!

I also have pumpkin baking in the oven so I can puree it and turn it into yummy treats. The pumpkins were so huge that I am able to fill about 5 pans. Most of it is going in my freezer. Do any of you have some pumpkin recipes you would like to share with me?