Pumpkin Carving

We love carving pumpkins for Halloween.
The kids talk for weeks beforehand about what they'll make.

Rick couldn't come home to do do it this year, since he came home early on Monday to go to the blaze AND was coming home early for Trick-or-Treating on Friday. Rebekah had play rehearsal, so it was just the three younger kids and I for this years masterpieces.

Jane (lover of all things baby) had to have a baby pumpkin.
She picked this tiny one out herself.

She really loved her "baby pumpkin."

She also really loves candy - especially candy corn.
I was trying to think what we could carve onto such a small pumpkin, when Emily had the good idea to make a candy corn on Jane's. It was very quick and easy, I just free-handed it, and Jane was thrilled with the result.

Scooping is always the yuckiest job.
I scooped the little kids - but Emily scooped her own.

Jacob was very excited to make a snowman pumpkin this year, and then at the last minute decided he wanted a vampire. He actually did all the pattern tracing himself, and even carved a lot of his. He did a great job. I'm hoping that in the next year or two he can do it all independently.

Emily did all of hers herself - except the part where two bats were together. "Let me do that part" I told her - they were close & it would be tricky. I cut them carefully, and then as I popped it out with my thumb, I broke it. Sorry Em! She's such a good sport, she said she thought it looked cool anyway.

Lit at night -

Baby Candy Corn

Vampire

Flying Bats

Jacob decided the day of carving not to make a snowman. I'd already bought three descending in size pumpkins ... so I decided I'd make a snowman.

This is the one from the "Pumpkin Heads" book.

and here's my guy!I planned on only cutting part of the way through the button holes, since that's what it looks like in the book, but went a little too deep on one and it all came off when I was scooping out the circle.

It turned out to be OK, because when I went to light it at night, it didn't glow as well with some flesh still there, (even though I put 3 candles in the bottom one) I think the pumpkins might have been too big to do it that way. I ended up cutting all the circles the whole way through.


What shall we make next year ???

Halloween Pie

"On Halloween, Old Witch baked a scrumptious Halloween pie. Then, setting it aside to cool, she leaped on her broom and flew off to make some mischief. Soon the wind began to blow. It blew down Old Witch's chimney and out her window. It blew through the trees and over the graveyard fence. And with it went the spicy scent of Halloween pie. Zombie in his cave sniffed the wind. Skeleton in his grave sniffed the wind. Vampire, Banshee, Ghoul, and Ghost sniffed the wind. Then they all rose from the graveyard and followed their noses to Old Witch's cottage. This delicious Halloween romp, filled with spooky sounds and midnight magic, begs to be read aloud again and again and again."

from MichaelOTunnell.com

We love this book. The creatures who come to steal the pie are creepy enough to make for a good spooky Halloween story - but the illustrations are just cute enough to not be scary. Everything turns out alright in the end - and who doesn't love a happy ending!

We all love pumpkin pie at our house (OK, not Emily - but everyone else), which makes this book all the more pleasing. Also features a pumpkin pie recipe in the back. I made it once, not the best I've ever tasted, but not bad.

Make a pumpkin pie, then snuggle up and read this spooky tale with your little one's while it cools.

The Great Jack-O-Lantern Blaze

Part of our Historic Hudson Valley Membership is the Great Jack-O-Lantern Blaze. Another one of our much anticipated Halloween traditions - and a fun place to get inspired for our own carving!

We went for Family Night the Monday before Halloween.

Here are my 4 & four pumpkin people, pointing the way in.Here's the best I could do with the pictures.
Not only do I not have a tripod, I was holding Jane a lot of it - but you still get the idea!

They have the traditional jack-o-lantern faces,

... whole fields of faces .... this years theme was clowns.

But there's so much more than just faces!

The dinosaurs were added last year. This year they had more,

and also had a dragon.

We like the ocean themed area.

Also new this year a space display with all the planets,

and even a rocket.
My absolute favorite new thing this year - a pumpkin stone henge.
I'd love to see this in the daylight & find out how they attached them all together.

The very end has these head one's that show the progression of life - the first one is a normal face, and they go down in a row to end up with just the skull. I think it's the creepiest display.Then we stop to get hot chocolate & cider donuts and caramel apples - yum!Another great year at the blaze.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

I couldn't find the Disney movie to explain the story of Ichabod Crane (I had wanted to play it in the car on the way to "Legend"), but we do have a few books.

This is one of my favorite versions for kids.

It's the "Step Into Reading" version by Natalie Standiford, Illustrated by Donald Cook. The story is perfectly simplified for children - but gets all the main points. The superstitious school master in love with Katrina Van Tassel trying to win her hand, the playful Brom Bones, the night ride over the bridge, the Headless Horseman and the smashed pumpkin - ending with a picture of Brom & Katrina's wedding. The delightful illustrations look like they are colored pencil, and they show Ichabod just as you would imagine him ("a scarecrow off it's post.)

When Rebekah was learning to read, I bought about 200 of these "step into reading books" and we have really got great use out of them (& will continue to do so.) This one is a "step 2" for grades 1 -3. Emily read it to Jacob & Jane several times, and we also read it one night as one of our candlelight stories.

I confess, I like this story a lot more now that we live here and have visited Sunnyside (Washington Irving's place) and the areas where the story is set. Really though, it's an American classic - so I really want my kids to be familiar with the story and you can't go wrong with a classic.

Sleepy Hollow

We maintain a membership with Historic Hudson Valley. We enjoy the historic sites year round, but October is really when we LOVE it.

"Legend Weekends" are held in October at Phillipsburg Manor, in Sleepy Hollow. They have bonfires burning, and ghosts (real people dressed all in white, with white painted faces) walking around, or dancing in the barn. On the lake they have ghosts rowing a rowboat (this year is was some kind of sea creature swimming.) The kids really love to see the live Headless Horseman ride through the pasture with a pumpkin under his arm. It's dark, the smell of the bonfires are in the air and there's lots of spooky music, it's so Halloweeny!

In years past we have left the younger kids with a babysitter. Last year we took Emily, but this year I decided to take the whole family - it's spooky, but nothing really too scary. We've spent a lot of time this month explaining to Jacob & Jane that the key thing to remember about Halloween is that it's all just pretend, so I thought they'd be OK. I really wanted them to see the movie (cartoon) of the headless Horseman - the old Disney one - but couldn't find it anywhere. If anyone knows where I can get one, I'd love to add it to our collection.

Without a doubt, the very best part of going to Legend, is listening to the storyteller. He's usually the first thing you get to past the entrance. Each year I see so many people pass him by to get to the other stuff and think they just don't know what they're missing.

We've heard Jonathan Kruk tell a different tale every year. This year it was the actual Legend of Sleepy Hollow. He is absolutely magical, and it's wonderful to sit in the dark, in the open air with your back to a fire and listen to him. I heard he does something called "Spooky, not Scary Stories" up in Cold Spring, right before Halloween for younger kids. I'd love to take mine there next year.

We were so happy to get to the end (of course, you exit through the gift shop) and see that he's released a CD of the unabridged version of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, so we bought it instantly. If you can get your hands on one of these, I highly recommend it. Rebekah loves listening to this guy, and listened to it over the next few nights as she did homework.

We had lots of fun (I didn't take the camera, because it's so dark, and none of it looks as cool with the flash anyway.) After spending almost 2 hours there, the kids were tired so we headed back to the car for cider, hot chocolate & pumpkin chocolate chip cookies that I always take with us. Jacob & Jane weren't scared too much (they hugged me a little closer for a few things) and had fun. There were no ensuing nightmares, so I think they can come each year.
I love taking advantage of living near Sleepy Hollow and this Halloween tradition!

Sabbath Day

I think we've always been pretty careful about how we spend our Sundays.

The kids are not allowed to play with neighborhood children on Sunday. We watch animated scripture stories or "cousin video's" or home movies of the kids as babies - when we watch TV at all. (Rick often watches football in the afternoons, which has been a source of contention between us these 10 years ....) We don't shop, or do the regular chores, etc. Yet, I have been really feeling like I wanted to elevate our Sabbath Day a little.

This is how our Sunday's usually go -
Our church is at 11:30 - which is a terrible time. It's been at 11:30 since February 2007 - and boy, oh boy I CAN NOT WAIT for it to change to 9am in the New Year. Rick usually leaves around 6:30am for high council meetings and then heads to speaking assignments. I feel like I spend the entire morning just getting everyone ready for church. Rick comes home, just in the nick of time to take us to church, although we are usually late. He typically drops us off and then heads to his assigned ward - Yonkers Spanish, coming back for us when church is over.

I spend 3 hours wrestling with tired, hungry children who have missed a real lunch (because they weren't hungry enough to eat it at 10am) and should be napping. I am lucky if I catch 50% of my class time. Rick comes back to pick us up and we all head home.

As soon as we're home everyone grabs a snack - making a total mess of the kitchen and dining room. Rick heads to the basement to watch TV. He usually falls asleep on the couch - so the kids who are down there with him, wreak havoc on the place. Rebekah disappears to her room to finish homework or who knows what, and I head straight to the kitchen to spend the whole afternoon making dinner.

We eat dinner, have family council & put the kids to bed. Then I spend the evening cleaning up the house that has been destroyed over the weekend - and we all go to bed, generally leaving dishes for me to face on Monday morning, because they won't all fit into the dishwasher in one load.

So, it's not that we're exactly breaking the Sabbath, but I have not really been feeling like it was a day of rest or being uplifted, or even just bonding with our family. I wanted - needed - a change.

I have to give my family credit for being willing to get on board. I made a deal with Rebekah. I would not wake her up on Sunday mornings, but would let her sleep in as long as she needed (she's so busy though the week and is always tired) as long as she was up early to do her chores on Saturday, so she could do all her homework on Saturdays too and commit not to do homework on Sunday. She would also need to spend Sunday afternoons with the family. Rick agreed to be more helpful on Sunday afternoons, and for us to spend time together. I asked everyone to chip in, so I'm not Cinderella (at least one day in the week.)

We've only done it for 3 weeks, but I'm pretty happy with how it's going. The mornings are still tough - but we'll change times in January, and we have been making a concerted effort to be on time. In fact, last Sunday we were EARLY!

This is how dinner went two weeks ago -

Jane fell asleep on my shoulder when we got home. I sat in a chair in the doorway, and gave directions & cuddled Jane to keep her asleep.

Emily cut the vegetables for me.

Jacob crushed the crackers & spices together to coat the chicken.

Rebekah cored & chopped the apples for the apple crisp -

and Jane helped make the topping, once she'd woken up.

Rick dipped the chicken in yogurt & then in the crackers & put it all in the pan.

Jacob helped to cut vegetables too - after he'd pulverized the crackers.

Dinner was made in record time!

I am lucky enough to have an oven that can be set to turn itself off. For the past few Sundays, I've put dinner in the oven, and set it to turn off just before it's ready - that way it still cooks a little as the oven starts to cool. The we load up and go on a family bike ride. It's fun to ride & be all together, it's healthy, it gets us enjoying the nice mild weather while it lasts, and we come home to a delicious, hot, ready to eat meal.

Here's last weeks ride -

We finally got Emily onto her new bigger bike that we bought her in spring (and off Rebekah's old, smaller one.) She did really well, although she was nervous about the bigger size.

Jacob & Jane love riding in the trailer, but this day it back-fired on me a little. We had been out late the night before at "Legend" and it was cooler than the weeks before. I put on their warm fleeces, and threw a couple of quilts around them too. They went right to sleep all bundled up together. I wondered why they were being so quiet back there!

Look at little Jane. I promise she can breathe!

Even when I took off the blankets & their helmets, they stayed fast asleep. Poor little things. They did wake up as I lifted them out. I thought we'd killed our evening & they'd be up for hours - which is what usually happens after a nap - but they went to bed at the usual time. They must have been exhausted!

At least now I know how to get them right to sleep when I want to!

I'm not sure how much the rest of the family is enjoying our new Sunday format, but I'm delighted. I hope the mild weather lasts, so we can keep it up for a while.