Fun Friday: RISE of the Jack O'Lanterns 2018

Hey you guys! Happy Friday! I hope you are all doing well! I am SO EXCITED to share this post with you. I went to the RISE of the Jack O'Lanterns at Old Westbury Gardens last weekend and I loved it just as much as I did last year! For those of you that don't know what the RISE of the Jack O'Lanterns is, basically it is a walk set up (in the most amazing location I must say - Old Westbury Gardens is incredible) with tons of the most intricately carved lit pumpkins. They have themed sections and as you'll see in the pictures below some of the themes this year were right up my alley! I was so impressed by everything and I absolutely could not wait to share it with you! It was so hard for me to narrow down the photos to my favorites but I chose the ones that really spoke to me most to share with you. With that said, this is still going to be a long post!

Before we went to the event we went out for dinner (I went with my family by the way). I figured I may as well show you what I had, ha! I had a really delicious salad with some field greens, avocado, pear, tomatoes, carrots and balsamic vinaigrette. I had to leave off the cheese and I added the avocado and it was absolutely incredible. Yes, I know there are tomatoes but I've decided that I feel no difference in my pain removing nightshades (plus more research has led me to believe the the nightshades being inflammatory is kind of not really proven at all - plus I have a hard time believe tomatoes are bad for you) I've decided that I'm ok with nightshades. I'm still sticking with gluten free but I'm going to include some nightshades back in my meals. Anyway, the salad was delicious and I'll definitely be recreating it at home.

These are the welcome pumpkins. I thought it looked really cool.

One of the first little collections was an adorable animal collection! For the sake of the length of this post I grouped them together into a little collage for you but look how cute they are! I couldn't wait to share these with you guys.

So up next was my absolute favorite section. I am really fascinated by astrology, the zodiac, and mystical stuff and they had an entire section devoted to all of that. I am not sharing everything with you here for the sake of space but in addition to what I have below there was about 5 or 6 tarot card jack o'lantern sculptures that were incredible.

Up first was this amazing ouija board! How cool is it?!

Up next we got into the zodiac sign pumpkins. I love the depictions of each sign and that they included the constellation as well. The attention to detail is seriously amazing.

Capricorn and Taurus.

Aquarius and Pisces.

Libra and Gemini.

Aries and Virgo (it was cute too because the other family member that was super interested in this section was an Aries - I love that we shared a pumpkin!).

You know I had to get a closer look at my Virgo girl.

Cancer and Scorpio.

Leo and Sagittarius.

Another amazing zodiac inspired sculpture.

How amazing is this Winnie the Pooh pumpkin! I'm a little bummed out that they left Eeyore off (I mean typical - no wonder the poor guy is always sad) but otherwise the pumpkin is incredible.

I think this Where The Wild Things Are pumpkin is also incredible. That detail!!

Every year that have a group of jack o'lanterns memorializing some celebrities that we had lost that year. I was hoping that they would have one for Anthony Bourdain and I was not disappointed.

How beautifully done is this pumpkin? It looks exactly like a photo of him. I'm so glad it was done well (let's be honest, sometimes the depiction is a little wonky) and that they honored him in this section.

They also did a really great job with the Stephen Hawking memorial pumpkin. 

Puffins!!!!!

I am obsessed with this pumpkin. It is so freaking well done and the little dudes are kind of adorable.

Lastly I just wanted to share this awesome walkway that you go through to get to the last section of the walk. It is so beautiful with the tree lined path that is perfectly lit.

I don't know if you can tell but I seriously love this event, ha! I am definitely hoping to make it an annual tradition because it's just my favorite way to celebrate the Halloween season. I am really glad that I got to share it with you and I hope that you all enjoyed the pictures! There is so much more that I didn't share because the post would be SO FREAKING LONG. If you live in the Long Island area I highly recommend this event.

Thanks again and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!