Saturday, October 29, 2011


Happy Halloween! Out here they proclaimed today trick or treating day so today was pretty much our Halloween. MoMo was a witch and Big R was Yoshi. I sewed both costumes without actual patterns. For the witch I used a tshirt to make a template for the bodice then sewed on sleeves and skirt. I think it turned out pretty well. MoMo sure loved it. Then for Big R's I did buy a pattern (only 99 cents at Joann) for a zip up pajama, planning to add a tail and spikes and make a hood or something for the head. Then I got home and realized that the pattern I bought was WAY too big. It was the adult L/XL instead of the teen size. So, then I used the super large pattern as a guide to try to make a smaller Big R size. So, although it didn't come out perfect, the neckline was low, it wasn't too bad all in all. At least Big R liked it. So, we did our pumpkin carving and I even made up a creature from a tiny, unripe cantaloupe from our garden and a pepper and some green cherry tomatoes.
MoMo's pumpkin...
Big R's pumpkin...And mine...I made up some spooky food to eat. Mummy dogs...
And some crazy disgusting looking jello worms. Care for a worm?
If you can get past the ick factor they are actually pretty tasty. Oh, and, of course, the candy haul.
So, that's about it. Happy Halloween!

Sunday, October 23, 2011

We have been having the most gorgeous autumn here. The weather has been absolutely fabulous. Lots of sunshine, chilly mornings but then it warms up to about 80 degrees by the afternoon. I LOVE autumn and this autumn has been nearly perfect! Our garden is still going strong as we haven't had freezing weather yet. The strawberries are confused and just started blooming again! And our tomatoes are trying to ripen as well as 3 or four cantaloupes. I'm hoping the weather holds until everything can ripen on the vine.
So, anyway, yesterday we went to a local farm's Fall Festival. You might remember a couple years ago I posted about MoMo's field trip to the pumpkin patch. This is the place where the festival was held. So the kids got a ride on the cow train.
Then we took a hayride out to the pumpkin patch where we picked out pumpkins.
We also browsed the huge selection of produce. Wow! They had so many different kinds of squash and gourds! Butternut squash, acorn squash, several varieties of spaghetti squash...and many that I did not know the names of. But there was one type of pie pumpkin that really amazed me. I don't remember the name but they were very long and tubular. These in the picture are still green. They do turn orange when ripe. It's hard to tell in the picture how big they are. But they are about 2 to 2 1/2 feet long. One would make enough pumpkin puree to make a LOT of pumpkin pies. Oh, and we found a couple of conjoined squash.
They also have gourds of all colors and shapes, smooth and bumpy.
There were some other really cool gourds but unfortunately the camera malfunctioned so we weren't able to get pictures.
And there was the tower of jack o lanterns.And they had a scarecrow factory. MoMo and I made up a scarecrow. Hubby and Big R opted to sit out for the scarecrow making. Here's our scarecrow hanging out at home.So, altogether it was a wonderful outing. Hope you enjoyed reading about it. Maybe I'll actually get Halloween blogged, too, next week!

Monday, October 3, 2011

Once again, I have to apologize for being away so long. But, you know we were busy living life. The kids and spent 6 weeks this summer away from home visiting family, camping and having lots of fun. Blogging pretty much was not a priority. but, lucky you, today you get not just one but two blog posts!
My MoMo just had a birthday! Well, it was almost a month ago but I've got some pictures to share. And as most of you know, she's a unique mixture of girly girl and tomboy so there was a corresponding mixture of Hello Kitty and Lego presents!
And, of course, Grandma R made her a dress!
I can't believe she's 7! She wanted a Super Mario Brothers themed birthday and unfortunately when I went to the Big City and looked at the two party supply stores I couldn't find any Super Mario stuff. So I ended up making up some 1-up mushrooms and stars and things for decorations. And, of course, I made a Super Mario cake. I made up the fondant decorations and the kids placed them on the cake.
Alright, well, that pretty much covers the birthday. I'll be back shortly with another post for you!