Candy corn and chalkboard pumpkins were on the agenda at our house this week.

I was a little nervous after my flamin’ hot Cheetoh experience with last year’s candy corn, but I have to admit it came out quite well this time around. I love this recipe.

The other Halloween craft was better in theory than execution, but still fun — and calorie-free. We sprayed pumpkins with chalkboard paint and gave them to second graders, along with chalk. Turns out, the smaller pumpkins are harder to work with, and second graders really have no idea what a chalkboard is.

So I’ll just show you the blank slates.

Sophie will be Olivia the Pig for Halloween this year (“of course!” she says if you ask) and I broke my Halloween rule and let Annabelle switch from Autumn to Harriet the Spy (she begged and Harriet’s my favorite), so we’ll spend the weekend trying to recreate Harriet’s spy belt. Poor Annabelle — that navy blue hoodie will get awfully hot; it’s 90 today but expected to dip below the mid-80s by Sunday.

But a girl’s got to be a slave to her vision. I get it.

Have a happy and safe Halloween, everyone!