by Rowan Hodgson

It was funny that Linda Butler’s pie, the first-place prize for the pumpkin carv- ing contest, went to Jim Montgomery. That’s because Jim is Linda’s husband. His pumpkin, called “self-portrait,” had garlic for teeth and pears for cheeks. (His pumpkin didn’t really look like him, but it was cool).

There were 41 pumpkins entered. Tom and Amy Quinn’s Leeds hot air balloon won second place, and Jim and Robin Mias came in third with their forest trick or treaters. In the kids’ category, Mason Tait and Siggi tied for first. In the youth category, Curtis Casey won first place, and Ryan Cheevers-Brown came in second. Mari- sah Helems won a jar of candy corn because she made the closest guess of the number of candy corns in the jar (there were 436).

Shawn Gundersen gave rides to the kids on a quad in the new Beaver Brook development, where it was dark and bumpy, but fun.

There was a pumpkin roll, and Leo Geis and Celia Goldsmith won that contest. All the kids who participated in the pumpkin roll got goody bags of stuff like Leeds buttons and Halloween rings.

Shawn Gundersen also built a catapult with pumpkins for ammunition aimed at pumpkins painted like pigs from “Angry Birds.” The targets didn’t get hit, but the ammunition smashed on the pavement and exploded.

There were all kinds of soups, breads, and sweets to eat. There were Halloween music, a fire pit in the Ever-Hale’s yard, and a Burning Man made and set on fire by Jim Montgomery, who does not really have garlic teeth and pear cheeks.

You can view some photos of the event here.