Hallowe'en preparations
I don't get into seasonal decorating, so our Hallowe'en prep is pretty quick and easy. I do decorate for winter solstice/xmas, but mostly because I would feel guilty and like the worst mother ever if I deprived my kids of all the materialistic trappings for the BIG holiday. The others, though, I just can't justify the money, the storage of all the crap for the whole rest of the year, and I can think of about 12,000 other things more important and enjoyable to do. So, I guess that makes me a holiday curmudgeon.
L. went out to the garden and selected a pumpkin for carving. This is the first year she has actually carved one. We have, up until now, just had her paint her pumpkins. She was very excited about carving, though, so that's what we did. She got the honor of cleaning the "guts" out, because we wouldn't want to deprive her of the really fun part. ;) She drew a cat face on the pumpkin and got her special carving knife ready to go.
She did almost all of the carving by herself. M. helped her with a few tough/tricky parts, but the rest was all her. I was impressed by how much she was able to do, because our pumpkins have extremely thick walls. Her cat face turned out to be adorable. Lila had to supervise the entire process, up close and personal, of course. The masterpiece is in the refrigerator right now--we will put the candle in and light it up tomorrow. We got it finished while it was still too light outside to light the candle, then we went to my parents' and returned after her bedtime. We want to make 
sure the debut of her first carved and lit jack-o-lantern has the appropriate pomp and circumstance. As soon as we got everything put away and cleaned up, Lila jumped onto the couch and curled up and went to sleep. All the sniffing and supervising must have been exhausting!
L. was also very anxious to try roasted pumpkin seeds for the first time, so we made up a small batch of those. They turned out as well as M & I remembered from childhood. We have enough pumpkins out in the garden that we will probably make another batch or two this fall.
All four of us went to my parents' for my dad's homemade pizza (yea!!), and we watched "The Time of our Lives". I think that's the only Abbott and Costello movie that I like. Since it's about ghosts, it seemed perfect for tonight. It's one of those movies that we've all seen before but enjoy watching again.
L. went out to the garden and selected a pumpkin for carving. This is the first year she has actually carved one. We have, up until now, just had her paint her pumpkins. She was very excited about carving, though, so that's what we did. She got the honor of cleaning the "guts" out, because we wouldn't want to deprive her of the really fun part. ;) She drew a cat face on the pumpkin and got her special carving knife ready to go.
She did almost all of the carving by herself. M. helped her with a few tough/tricky parts, but the rest was all her. I was impressed by how much she was able to do, because our pumpkins have extremely thick walls. Her cat face turned out to be adorable. Lila had to supervise the entire process, up close and personal, of course. The masterpiece is in the refrigerator right now--we will put the candle in and light it up tomorrow. We got it finished while it was still too light outside to light the candle, then we went to my parents' and returned after her bedtime. We want to make 
sure the debut of her first carved and lit jack-o-lantern has the appropriate pomp and circumstance. As soon as we got everything put away and cleaned up, Lila jumped onto the couch and curled up and went to sleep. All the sniffing and supervising must have been exhausting!
L. was also very anxious to try roasted pumpkin seeds for the first time, so we made up a small batch of those. They turned out as well as M & I remembered from childhood. We have enough pumpkins out in the garden that we will probably make another batch or two this fall.All four of us went to my parents' for my dad's homemade pizza (yea!!), and we watched "The Time of our Lives". I think that's the only Abbott and Costello movie that I like. Since it's about ghosts, it seemed perfect for tonight. It's one of those movies that we've all seen before but enjoy watching again.
Yikes! Ivan just let out the most ungodly series of yowls. I went running to him, just in time for him to hurl out an enormous quantity of freshly eaten (and seemingly unchewed) cat food. I'm thinking he just ate too much too fast, but will have to watch him closely (and baby him of course) for the rest of the night. My poor little boy!
Last night was BTC's annual Hallowe'en carnival. We met Orinda and the boys there, and all the kids had fun. L. wanted to go through the haunted house, so I took her through. She was pretty timid about walking through there, but was fine as soon as we got out. They played a few games and ran around. The guy who was there this year doing balloon sculptures did the most amazing balloon art I've ever seen. It was really quite awesome! L. wanted a cat (what else?), and Logan wanted a sword. L. also got a black cat painted on her cheek. Her costume turned out to be a bit of a surprise. She has the cheetah costume from last year that still fits, plus her new costume for this year, but she did not wear either of those. She came downstairs in one of her beautiful "dressy" dresses, ghoulish blue makeup under her eyes, and the piece around which the entire costume was built--a special thumb tack on her cheek with a stream of "blood" pouring down from it. We went to our normal Friday lunch at El Jardin, and Carrie and Eric were there, playing with a thumbtack that had the point pulled off and a piece of tape in its place. They were sticking the tack on various body parts, making it look like it was stuck into them. L. thought that was the coolest thing ever, and they gave it to her when they left. Little did any of us suspect that it would become the catalyst for her "creepy girl" costume!I was a good girl today and got my chores done and the weeks' homeschooling lessons done. Since my youngest is in bed, and my oldest is out doing god knows what, I'm going to go downstairs with M and watch whatever come in from Netflix today. Pretty rockin' Saturday night, heh?
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