Betty's Pumpkin Mistake

Since Evan and I have moved up to the cities we had been told about this magical city that hosts one of the scare-my-pants-off and stuff-your-face candy fest.  Naturally, this intrigued me and I made it a mandatory outing for us to head to Anoka - the Halloween Capitol of the World!  

I had prepared for the event by reaching activities, looking up parking issues, and even the history… heck I even had a vision of what my outfit was going to be.  The Morton Girl!  So clever if I must say so myself :)  It was pure genius because it was unique but all the pieces could be reused. 

As Oct. 27th drew closer I bragged to people at work of my weekend plans.  Half the people told me I was crazy, the other half looked at me like I was weird.  Personally it made me giggle because they were the crazies for never going before!  

However, all of a sudden our plans changed for Oct. 27th.  It is seriously exciting -  made a friend at church!  Yeah, I sound like a kindergartener, but seriously this was exciting for us!  At the moment I have refrained from asking them to promise not to ditch me because I seriously needed to meet some people up here.  So our friends invited us over on Oct. 27th in the evening for supper and games.  Well we were in charge of the dessert.  

Evan had a vision - he wanted to make a pumpkin pie… and I wanted to eat the pumpkin pie.  Very exciting!!! 

So about 1.5 hours before the parade we decided to make the pie.  The directions said it would take 30 minutes and I had no grounds to disagree with it.  

Doesn't it look DELISH!?  I could just kiss the chef :)

However, after 30 minutes we stuck the fork in the pie and it was not ready.  Not even close.  We kept doing this for about an hour and fifteen minutes…. now math gurus (cough Heidi) do the math.  We were going to miss the parade!!  

I was in total denial.  Picture me sitting in a lawn chair in the middle of our kitchen with three layers, soccer socks, and gloves glaring at the pie because I now would have to wait another 365 days for this event!  How could the directions be so off?!  Shame on you Betty for crushing a sweet-tooth addict's dream!  

Then it hit me…maybe the parade is online!  And wouldn't you know it (say that MN style) it was online and it even had commentary!  Similar to a Macy's Day parade, but with MN flare!  I was excited to share this experience with Evan as we sat bundled up in our lawn chairs with pumpkin aroma filling the townhouse munching on Reese's Cups in the front row of the parade.  This was actually pretty great because we didn't have to fight traffic.  

However, I believe we need to get more in the spirit next year, so here is my big idea… a projection screen, opening a window for the crisp air and buying a large bag of candy.  ps. you're invited and can even wear a costume… heck Anoka may lose its Halloween capitol status because they can't keep up with the Joneses :)