Prized Pumpkins

And the pumpkins kept rolling in. All together we received 782 decorated pumpkins in this year’s Halloween coloring contest, and they were all amazing. Our judges – from The Spokesman-Review’s design department – soon found themselves covered in glitter as they marveled over the creativity and artistry displayed by all of you.

Thank you so much for sharing your drawings with us. We got 163 entries from children up to age 4, another 347 from children between 5 and 7, and finally 272 from children between 8 and 10 years old. As you can imagine, it was very difficult picking the nine winners you see on this page, what with all the beautiful colors, the plastic spiders crawling, the string you’d worked around the edges of the pumpkin and, of course, the Cheez-Its.

We expected and got all sorts of orange and black candy, macaroni, pearls and leaves – but crackers? Never in a million years did we expect that one.

All nine of our winners receive a $20 gift certificate to the Children’s Corner Books & Toys store.

So here’s to creativity and a happy and safe Halloween to all of you.