Halloween in the New Hood

Happy Halloween from the Elfalent and Cookie.

Charlie joined us this morning to go trick or treating at the Rosewood Senior Assisted Living.  I have done this event since Owen was little and love it.  It's really nice for toddlers because they can learn Trick or Treat etiquette in a warm, light, friendly, and forgiving environment.  And, even more importantly, we put smiles on the faces of many elderly people.

It's hard to believe we celebrated Charlie's second birthday this weekend.

Two years ago, we took this pea and this caterpillar to a Halloween party.  I don't think the party scared them any more than life in general at that stage.

After the trick or treating, we went over to Aunt Linda's new condo in downtown St. Paul and were treated to Sawatdee for lunch.  Mia loves noodles, but every time she put these in her mouth, she would look at us desperately and say, "HOT! HOT!"  It was, too.  All of our lips were burning and noses were running.

Anna was planning to head back to Rochester tonight, but since Charlie took such a good nap, she stayed and joined us for Trick or Treating in our new neighborhood.  Note: Charlie only has one shoe on in this photo.  This was not discovered until our 5th stop.

Our neighbor and his son went with us.  Walking out the door, I was surprised at how few trick or treaters were out.  In our old neighborhood, we would go through two large bags of candy and that was after we got home from doing our own trick or treating.  One neighbor here told me that last year she had about 30 kids!  She seemed to think this was a lot.  I guess moving to a quiet neighborhood has one downfalls.  On the plus side, we didn't have to worry about the kids crossing streets or getting hit by cars AND one guy was giving out whole candy bars!  You can do that if you only get a couple dozen trick or treaters, I guess.

 First stop was our babysitter's house.  She was gone, but her mom was home passing out candy.  C & her brother had a couple of zombie looking scarecrowy things by the door which Mia was fascinated with.  They also had a inflatable cat tunnel of which Owen, Evan & Dominique knocked down while we were chatting.  Oops.

We carted Mia and Charlie around in a wagon.  Once we realized Charlie was missing a shoe, Anna took off with a flashlight in search of it.  Unfortunately by the time she returned, without a shoe, Charlie was done for the night. 

 About the same time Charlie pooped out, Evan wore out too.  He was off with Jim and Grandpa today and didn't really eat anything.  He was having a sugar crash before he even filled his bucket with sugar.  Poor kid.  This is probably his favorite holiday.  He wanted to ride in the wagon, but there wasn't room.  Things started falling apart fast.  I went in search of Anna to tell her to forget the shoe, lest she miss the whole night.  In the end, our neighbor took Owen and his son, while Jim and I got the rest of the crew back to the house.  

One other nice thing about the quiet neighborhood is that we only had one trick or treater after 8:00.  The bad news is, we have SO much candy.

Happy Halloween from the Letts Family

 HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

And for your viewing enjoyment, here are some past Halloween Jib Jabs.  Just click here and here.

Dodge Halloween Extravaganza

 Tonight we dressed the kids in their Halloween costumes and went to the annual Dodge Halloween Extravaganza.  I really like this event because there are so many cool things to do besides just get loaded up on sugar.  For the past two years now, our favorite part of the night has been looking through the telescope to see Jupiter and three of it's largest moons.

 Dodge really appeals to all of our science interests.  Inside the farmhouse, you can touch a bull snake and feel the fur and skins on various animal hides.  The Extravaganza events include popcorn and apple cider for sale, skits performed, a bonfire for roasting marshmallows, and a DJ.  Then visitors must choose whether they will brave the spooky trail through the woulds or take the safe path to granny's house on the trick or treat trail where nice volunteers dressed in cute costumes give you candy, stickers, chips and even toothpaste.

Guess which path we chose?

It's Time to Carve the Pumpkins

For a week now, I've been saying that we need to carve our pumpkins.  When Jim walked in the door tonight before 6 o'clock, I declared tonight the night.

When I was a kid, my dad would fill several pages of a legal pad with sketches of pumpkin possibilities.  Then my mom and I would pick two, usually one happy and one scary.  When Owen and Evan were younger, I use to make a few sketches, but for the sake of time I just asked if they wanted scary or happy.  They wanted scary.  Scary to me means a broad narrow grin with squinty eyes.  I think I might need to add some new tricks to my bag for the future.

Jim and Owen ditched out after about two minutes.  They spent the night watching Carl Sagan's Cosmos in the basement.  There is probably nothing I would want to do less than watch Cosmos.  On the other hand, I'm sure there is nothing Jim would want to do less than carve pumpkins.  So, the good news in, we both enjoyed our evening at home doing things we love.

The pumpkin turned out OK, but I know the face is going to flop in after one night in the cold.

Evan's turned out pretty good for a first time carver who is not even five years old yet.  Don't you just love his Jimmy Hendricks, bring on the fire, pose?  I have no idea where he gets these things.  He can accurately imitate just about anything after seeing it once and that's not just limited to people.

The next day we took some pictures of all our decorated pumpkins.  Our awesome babysitter who lives just across the street, took the kids to her mom's garden and let them each pick one of these.  Aren't they ADORABLE!?!  They didn't come with the decorations.  We added those, but with or without the faces, there is just something about little pumpkins.  (Intended inference)

The thing I like about these Mr. Potato Head-like faces is that any kid (or adult) can do it quickly and with no mess.

I think he is trying to impersonate his pumpkin here.  Joking.  This is Two-Face.  He has a mask on one side and Evan's carving on the other.

All my pumpkins on my porch.

(And some lovely chalk art that looks like bird poop.  See that?  Right by where the doorbell is?  I'll leave it there so you can see it next time you come over, K?)

How festive!

Afton Pumpkin Patch with Grandma

Owen has off school for MEA so we went to the pumpkin patch today.  We went back to Afton since it's so close and we had such a great time last year.

As we were driving to the orchard, we saw this coyote walking through a field.  He stopped, looked us and casually continued on his way.

The thing I love about Afton Apples is that they have so many things to do: raspberry, pumpkin, apples, etc. plus wagon rides, a corn maze, hay mound, petting zoo, tire mountain, food and more!

I think Mia's favorite part was the raspberry picking.  She got really into it this summer with Evan and now she's a pro!  Well... the video doesn't really do it justice because I started rolling tape after she had already pretty much plucked that branch dry.

 

Even Owen, my non-fruit eater, got into picking the raspberries.  He was very interested in learning how to pick the best tasting berries, even though he wouldn't try one.  He gave all of his to Mia too.

We checked out the petting zoo.

And then we headed to the pumpkin patch on a tractor pulled hay wagon.

At Afton, the wagon drops you off one end of the pumpkin patch and picks you up at the other.  I learned last year that it's good to pick your pumpkins towards the end of the patch so you don't have to carry them all the way down the patch.  Unfortunately I didn't relay that message to Owen and Connie in time.

After lugging the pumpkins half way down the patch, we had to stop and take a break.

Apple trees are conveniently located next to the pumpkin patch.  You can also hop on the wagon and get dropped off at your favorite apple variety.

 

Just wanted to show the perspective of how long this patch is.  You can't even see the other end in this photo and we still another 200 feet to go.  Lesson learned, pumpkins bought, fruit eaten and good times had.

Apple Pies

After the first grade's trip to the Apple Orchard, the classes - in the past - have always made apple sauce.  Well, Dr. Vincent is a big idea kind of man.  He gets an idea and he makes it happen.  He decided he was sick of apple sauce and he wanted apple pie.  After a few weeks of scrambling around for apple peelers, materials, and enough volunteers to make 20 pies with about 100 kids, the day has finally come.  

As I walked in the cafeteria this morning before school with Jim's mom, her neighbor and Owen, we ran in to dear Dr. Vincent and guess what?  He is in meetings all day and won't even be around to see the pies being made or to enjoy them with the four gallons of ice cream that he was suppose to supply but forgot.  Guess who ran out last minute to get 4 gallons of ice cream?

Back in my teaching days I would have embraced a project like this.  I guess six years of cooking three meals a day with babies, toddlers, and other whiny hungry guests hanging from my legs and over my shoulders has tainted to me to cooking with groups.  But Jim's mom was a teacher and her friend was a teacher and I realized this is different because I'm not the only one with know how in the kitchen.  

 

Linda (Connie's friend) was the apple peeler expert. She brought her own Pampered Chef peeler, a paring knife, and a corer.  She was the brains of this operation for sure.  While the staff was busy starting the school day, Linda, Owen, Connie and I began peeling 100 apples.  Shortly after the first set of kids and the extra volunteers showed up, there was a terrible incident.  My peeler was giving me a little trouble.  Linda reached across to point something out to me, when my hand slipped off my apple core and forced her finger into the blade of the peeler.  We could not get the blood to stop.  I got ahold of Jim and soon Linda and Connie were off to our house in hopes of fixing Linda up.  Jim ended up taking Linda to the clinic and glued her finger, but I missed most of Owen's class's pie making due to my clumsiness and by the time Connie and Linda got back the whole event was over.

 I did make it back to the cafeteria to catch a few pictures of groups with their finished pies.  Darn though.  I was hoping this activity was going to be my chance to learn how to make pie.  Well, I did get a good lesson in what not to do when peeling apples.

 And, of course, I had to run around taking pictures any chance I got.  That did give me a chance to see the different pie techniques.  The one trick I learned from the premier pie maker in the room, who also happened to be one of two males in the room, was to "lift and pinch" the dough around the edge of the crust in order to make a rippled edge.

 The kind ladies in the cafeteria let us use their ovens during lunch to bake the pies.  When I returned to the building with the ice cream and scoops, I was welcomed with the smell of warm, sweet apple pie.  When I got to the cafeteria, however, I was the only one there.  Soon the classes showed up and none of us knew what to do.  The volunteers had all gone upstairs to work on the fundraiser which needed to be tallied today too!  By the time we had what we needed, there was only about 15 minutes left.  If you think you can cut and serve 20 pies to 100 kids in 15 minutes, I will tell you it is almost possible, but only if you have a team of very hard working teachers such as these ladies who know how to roll with it.

Meanwhile, I walked around scooping the ice cream.  I was impressed by how subdued to the climate was.  The kids were talkative, but not boisterous.  The were polite and only one child asked for more.  I think there were only 4 kids in the whole lot that did not try the pie.  Guess whose kid was one of them?  You may remember me mentioning that Owen doesn't eat fruit.  I thought maybe after the apple donut, he might try the pie, but no go.

Frontenac Revisited

To me, fall is full of traditions: pumpkin carving, apple orchards, and leisurely hikes among the fall colors enjoying those last few moments of warmth before Old Man Winter nestles in.  My favorite place in Minnesota to hike with the kids is Frontenac State Park.

You can't help but frolic when you're at Frontenac.

But the boys still will slow down a minute for their baby sister.

A water break, basking in the warm sun on the mowed path amidst miles of prairie.

It's always nice to get a ride from Daddy.  I have some great shots of Owen up on Jim's shoulders from the year we came here just before Evan was born.

Some ladies that passed us offered to take our family photo.

Mia finally got the idea of things.

Then we found the perfect resting spot.  I don't know what this grass is called, but it is the softest, most lush ground cover.

A lion in the grass.

And a cub.

It's pretty much impossible to take a bad picture when you have such an amazing backdrop.  I just love how Mia's pig tails match the prairie grasses.

 

Sweetest photo of the day.

That walking stick my be a tad big for you, my dear.

The reason Frontenac is the perfect place for our family hikes is that it alternates between Jim's favorite - the prairie and my favorite - the forest, it runs along the Mississippi river.  You can see the trains running along the shore across the river in Wisconsin.

forest

prairie

fall colors

wooly bears and gopher holes

WE LOVE IT!