Apocalyptic Pumpkin carving at the Penaloza's

On Oct. 24, my best friend and cousin gathered at my house to carve pumpkins with my sister and I. This year, we opted for picking up our pumpkins from Safeway instead of risking it at a busy pumpkin patch.

While listening to a Spotify-created Halloween playlist and snacking on candy, we made a gooey mess on the dining room table.

A bowl of Halloween candy sits on the dining room table, which has been repurposed for pumpkin carving.

Pumpkin guts tossed into a communal metal mixing bowl.

Casidhe McNeil, my best friend, sizes up her stencil on the pumpkin she picked earlier. In the background, my sister, Chrizzle Penaloza (left), browses through Google search results for "unicorn pumpkin" with my cousin Piper Nissen (right).

Piper Nissen, surrounded by a mess, stencils her Olaf design onto her pumpkin with a thumb tack.

Casidhe McNeil carefully works her carving knife along the pattern drawn onto her pumpkin.

Chrizzle Penaloza opts for painting her pumpkin so it will last longer in her beauty studio downstairs.

Discarded pumpkin pieces, stencil cuttings and leftover thumb tacks clutter the plastic tablecloth protecting the dining room table.

The finished unicorn masterpiece sits front and center on the kitchen counter.

Casidhe McNeil holds her finished pumpkin which showcases a moon, jack-o-lantern and flying bat.

The completed carved pumpkins glow in the dark, done by Casidhe McNeil (left), Dani Penaloza (middle) and Piper Nissen (right).