A Cold Day for Four Little Pumpkins

Halloween Adventures

October always ends on a high note in this Household what with Halloween falling on the 31st each year. The kids enjoyed the month immensely and there was no shortage of activities and fun. We went to the local Pumpkin Patch about half way through the month, and spent the rest of October listening to spooky Halloween music and carving pumpkins and playing in the autumn leaves that are scattered ankle deep across our lawn…
and then of course the Grand Finale…a Triple Trick-or-Treat Knockout.

The kids had decided on Star Wars costumes at the beginning of the month, but I hadn’t really given it much thought and just figured they would wear whatever they had in their dress up bin. However, after carving the pumpkins, JJ announced that he wanted to be Darth Vader. I wasn’t too keen on the idea, since we didn’t have a Darth Vader costume, but upon thinking about the Star Wars character choices for the other two kids, I commented on the fact that Bubby would make a really cute Yoda. Rocky, however, was having none of that. Yoda is his favorite character and he wasn’t going to let Bubs dress up as Yoda for a.n.y.t.h.i.n.g. So with Rocky claiming Yoda as his Official Halloween Costume of ’09, that added up to two costumes that the kids had chosen that we did not own. Then BigP came up with the idea that Bubby would make a very cute R2D2…I agreed, but do you think we own a R2D2 costume? Hell, no we don’t. That’s when I decided I would have to go fabric shopping to make the costumes.

However, when the next morning rolled around, I did not feel like hitting the fabric store and so decided to get creative instead. I found an old black tablecloth that would work perfectly for Darth Vader’s cloak, and made the chest plate (?) and front control panel thingie out of cardboard. I looked up a picture of Darth Vader online and cut out a piece of cardboard in the same shape as the chest plate and control panel and then painted it. It was really easy and JJ loved it. The rest of the costume was easy as it simply required black clothing. And luckily we had a paper Darth Vader mask, which JJ was happy to wear.

Yoda’s costume wasn’t quite as “polished” shall we say. I found an old-ish plain light brown Tshirt in BigP’s closet, and cut it down the middle to make it look like a robe. I made the head and ears with some leftover craft foam which I painted green. It didn’t look *great* because of course I did it at the very last minute – literally an hour or so before our first Trick-or-Treating foray - and so ran out of time to paint in the details, but the child was pleased with it and he did look very cute.

R2D2 was made out of some cardboard that we rolled into a tube and then covered with white paper. Big P had the honors of painting in the details. Bubby looked so adorable as R2 and received many, many comments!

So with costumes made and ready, we headed out for the first stop on our 2009 Halloween Trick or Treating circuit – which took place on the Main Street. It was a big success and the kids scored enough candy to make them very pleased. We weren’t out for very long as it was pretty chilly and with the days getting dark so early, it was easy to reign in the kids and head home before dinner time.

Our second stop was a few days later at a nearby town that puts on quite a show. We met up with some friends and hit what seemed like every single store and house in the town. Twice.

The final stop on the circuit was back at home in the neighborhood adjacent to us, on the actual night of Halloween. This time BigP and I decided to add to the Star Wars theme and dress up as Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia. I found some white sheets that we weren’t using and quickly sewed up a (very basic) Princess Leia dress and Luke Skywalker robe. The kids were impressed and I was told that I was the most beautifullest Princess Leia that ever was!
The kids ran around like crazy from house to house and had so much fun. We ended up at the scariest house on the street and with buckets filled to the brim with candy, the kids were happy to head home so that they could have a turn handing out candy themselves.

Once we were home, they waited outside for quite some time for fellow Trick or Treaters to come by, whiling the time away by munch, munch, munching on way more candy than their permitted two candy allowance. Turns out our neighborhood isn’t too big on the whole Trick- or-Treating thing (or maybe it was just too late), but finally one little girl showed up and the kids jumped up with such excitement they nearly scared her off. After that, it was bed time and all three of them were asleep the minute their heads hit the pillows. Always such angels when they are sleeping…

So that is our story of Halloween…and now we have a stash of candy for the Halloween fairy to come and collect…I’d say the scariest thing about Halloween in our Household is that BigP and I will have polished off all the candy by the weekend, and by BigP and I, I really mean me; and by the weekend, I really mean before the weekend….

aargggggggggggggghhh the curse of a sweet tooth.

One of the crafts we did before Halloween was making candy Pumpkin faces (inspired by Martha.) So after Halloween, I removed the candy, cut the pumpkins in half, stuffed them and baked them. I googled stuffed pumpkins and then adapted the recipes I found, to my own version. Basically, I baked the pumpkins in the oven until they were cooked. Then I cooked some sweet Italian Sausage, fried up some onion, garlic, mushrooms and peppers and made some stuffing. Then I mixed it all together and added it to the pumpkin bowls and baked them for about ten minutes. Lastly, I grated some cheese over the top and broiled it until it was melted. They were a big hit and the kids loved eating out of the pumpkin bowls!

I think this meal is going to become an after Halloween tradition from now on.

Halloween Food - the good, the bad and the ugly

Inspired by this tasty looking Halloween meal (from allrecipes.com), I made the kids a pumpkin shaped cheese quesadilla for their afternoon snack last week.

They were a big hit and I felt very proud. A day or so later, with the pantry (pantry in our case, being one cupboard) looking rather bare, and dinner needing to be made, I noticed a can of pumpkin at the back of the shelf and since we still had tortillas (and what with the pumpkin Q’s being so appreciated a few days earlier) I decided to make pumpkin quesadillas for dinner. Well, it sounded delicious to me. The reality, however, was a little bit different. I suppose I should have googled an actual recipe instead of simply assuming that heating up the pumpkin and melting cheese on it would be a good filling for a pumpkin shaped quesadilla. Let’s just say that the kids were not impressed from the start.

JJ: “What’s that disgusting smell?”

Rocky immediately deadpans: “Oh, that’s just the smell of Mom making dinner.”

And it kind of went downhill from there. The comments that were muttered while they were being forced strongly encouraged to eat their dinner, were not very complimentary. Words such as dirt and mud were used repeatedly, along with unpleasant sound effects. Even BigP, who always says thank you for every meal, muttered an almost inaudible thank you on this particular evening.

Aarrrrrgghhh…cooking is just not my thing. But I did seem to fare better on the snacks I made over the past few weeks...

The Ghost Crackers made with cream cheese were a big hit - I used chocolate sprinkles for the eyes (Kraft Foods uses raisins.)

The mini pumpkin pies were a combination of Bakerella's Pumpkin pie bites and Martha's Jack-o'-lantern tarts.  I used Bakerella's recipe because it looked easy and delicious - although everything she bakes looks delicious.  However, true to my style, I didn't follow the recipe exactly.  I had every intention of doing so, but somehow I ended up adding an additional egg and I didn't have pumpkin pie spice, so had to make my own and added too much of it.  So my little pies were not bright orange looking like hers and the taste was good but not great.  Which is why I typically stick to things I can bake out of a box, but I'm trying to expand my horizons...I will definitely try baking them again, maybe trying Martha's recipe, which I think uses cream instead of cream cheese.  But they were so cute and irresistable that disaster nearly struck when I took the little pie crust Jack-o'-lantern faces out of the oven (they get baked separately and simply pop on top of the pies once everything is cooled).  My husband was hovering in the kitchen and thought I had baked a batch of cookies and went over and started eating them...I had only made a handful or so, and so the poor unsuspecting chap got quite the earful...but the kids (and the hubby, once he was officially allowed to taste them) thought they were really fun and were very happy to have them in their lunch bags for school snack for the week.

The pear mouths didn't come out as well as the apple bites from FamilyFun, but we had just bought pears and the kids really wanted a pear for a snack, so I quickly cut them out to look like mouths - next Halloween I will try this again with apples, though.

don't scream...it's almost HALLOWEEN

It’s hard to believe that we are in the last week of October already. October is such a beautiful month in the Rocky Mountains. The month starts with autumn in full swing, with the valley cloaked in all her Fall splendor and ablaze in the brightest oranges, yellows and reds. The mornings and evenings have a nip to them that warns of the coming winter, and yet the days are mostly sunny and the beauty of the colorful forests and snow capped mountains warms the soul. The days seem to get shorter quickly in October and we tend to put a tad more energy and effort into embracing them. Whether it’s going for an early evening walk, or taking the kids to the park - we want to get as much out of the last precious snow free days as possible, before we find ourselves knee deep in snow again. And then towards the end of the month, with the Apens and Cottonwoods and Mountain Maples mostly bare from the chilly October winds howling through the valley, we prepare for Halloween.

I think while Big P and I appreciate the month of October for the sheer beauty of it, the kids see it as the prelude to one of their favorite holidays - HALLOWEEN. The entire month of October, and probably a good chunk of September, is devoted to constant chatter about Trick or Treating and ghoulish costumes and lots of low whispers that they think I cannot hear, about what they would like to do if someone denied them candy and they indeed were allowed to "Trick".

Usually we have the house decorated around the beginning of the month – mostly spider webs strung across the mirror in the dining room and around the dining room light fixture, as well as some paper cut outs on the windows, and fun little bits and pieces here and there. Outside we hang skeletons and witches and ghosts from the trees. But this year I have been terribly disorganized and finally last weekend we got out the Halloween box and began to decorate. In the box we found our old Halloween CD - every year the kids play it constantly until the 31st and so Ghostbusters, Purple People Eater and Monster in the Tub and such are the soundtrack to Halloween in this Household.  JJ both loves and is terrified of Halloween simultaneously. He loves the CD but there are two tracks on it that he just cannot listen to and has to leave the room. Rocky, however takes it all in his stride and gives me a sarcastic smirk when his brother rushes out of the room. Bubs, on the other hand doesn’t pay too much attention to the music at all, since his attention is usually focused solely on implementing his important daily secret missions, of which there are many. Some of these include inserting puzzle pieces and crackers into the DVD with laser like precision and speed, or seeing how many DVD’s he can jam into the VCR slot before his mother comes flying across the room at him (he has a tendency to turn stone deaf while completing said missions). Or, grabbing a container full of his brother’s markers and writing on the walls with them. I must say, though, that although he writes on the walls, that is not his intention. A little while ago Big P and I taped a sheet of paper on the dining room wall so we could jot down some notes and goals (obviously, we still have “Buy a Corkboard” on our list of things to do), so the Bubs sees us writing on this paper on the wall, and simply wants to add his two cents.

Anyhow, I digress, with Halloween less than a week away, the kids are amping up for the Big Day. On Sunday we carved pumpkins, so at least we can tick that off the list. It was a cold and breezy fall afternoon and for some reason we decided to do our pumpkin carving outdoors. The boys drew their faces on the pumpkins and then quickly retreated inside, leaving Big P and I outside to carve the things. Oh, and of course, Bubs wasn’t about to go inside. He had not yet completed his in-depth inspection of every toy and structure on the property. I don’t know why we stayed outside to finish the job, but we sat out there freezing our butts off, while carving out the intricate designs. We did have a few good laughs while we were at it, however. I wanted my jack o lantern to look friendly and fun and Big P wanted his to look terrifyingly scary. Ironically, mine came out looking quite frightful and Big P’s looking quite happy. It was almost as if our personalities possessed us and came through on the pumpkins… hmmm.

With pumpkins carved and everyone back inside, the boys decided on their costumes. This year I swore I was going to make the kids chose costumes from their dress up bin in their bedroom, because buying food over costumes would be a wise choice right now, but I am such a sucker for home-made stuff and have always made their Halloween and birthday party costumes and accessories, so I guess I am off to buy some cheap fabric tomorrow to whip up some scary costumes…