Bubba Gump Pumpkin Co

I've officially become the Bubba Gump Pumpkin Company. After you see the pictures below, you'll see why. This is what my last two days have been about: Rinse smashed pumpkin of dirt. Put pumpkin pieces into rectangular dishes filled with some water. Because of the size of the dishes and the fact that I have only two rectangular baking dishes, I can only bake pieces of approxiumately 3/4 pumpkin at a time. Bake pumpkin until soft at about 350 degrees. Take pumpkin out of oven, wait until it cools. Peel or cut rind off. Chop into chunks and put in Cuisinhart food processor and blend until mush. Pour pumpkin mush into large freezer bags, and put in freezer. Repeat ad nauseum.

I started to say to Savannah, "I'm gonna make pumpkin pie, pumpkin soup, pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin bread, pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin sorbet, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin sandwiches..."

"I'll pass on the pumpkin sandwiches," she pipes in.

"...pumpkin cake, pumpkin souffle, pumpkin quiche, pumpkin salad, pumpkin cocktail..."

Wait a minute, what is pumpkin cocktail? I think this has gotten outta hand...

Sam tosses a pumpkin to a friend in the Pumpkin Toss Contest.
Two of the boys do the toss while everyone else looks on.
Sam about to drop his pumpkin onto the tree stump from one of the trees lost in Hurricane Ike.
The pumpkin, about to smash!
And... Smashed! A different meaning altogether.
The boys about to start off on their scavenger hunt.
And just in case you didn't think we were a strange family already, here are the party favors. Yep. Dead squirrels. Don't. Even. Ask. I blame Matt.