Halloween - Carving the Pumpkin (3 of 3)

One memory that I have as a kid was carving pumpkins with my family. That was always fun, but we never had the cool little tools that Wal-Mart sells now. When I grew up the pumpkins had triangle eyes and crooked smiles, the best that we could do with mother's good bread knife.

I asked Levi to look through the book that came with the tools, and select a pattern he would like me to carve into his pumpkin. He chose.... the spider! Hmm, I sensed a theme for him this year. It was a good choice though, playful and clever and not scary like some of the other patterns in the book.

The kids were curious about the whole process and loved sticking their heads in the pumpkin to make noises. While I was carving we had a couple of kids come to the door trick-or-treating. Each time, I had Levi go with me to hand out candy. I think it is good to teach giving, as well as polite taking, on this strange holiday. He did surprisingly well and understood the concept.

The spider turned out really well. Levi wanted it in his room, all lit up. We couldn't find any tealight candles (fail) but we had a lamp that worked out well. The kids were so excited to see the pumpkin glowing in the dark. Ellie even laid down and put her feet on it.

Of course it kept Levi awake half the night. But I think that is ok. You're only a kid once!

After sawing that intricate pattern, my hands were done for. No carved pumpkin for Ellie this year.

Halloween - Spider Cookies (2 of 3)

For my birthday, my grandma Joyce mailed me some magazines with holiday recipes. Levi had fun looking through the "Halloween Treats" section with me and I told him to pick out his favorite cookie and we would make it together. Amid the bats and pumpkin cookies there was a Peanut Butter Spider Cookie recipe. Levi gravitated right to it and didn't waver in his choice.

It was just as much fun for me to anticipate the activity as it was for him. We even went shopping for the ingredients together ahead of time! I had some trouble finding the right kind of licorice. I had to settle for the only kind they had at the store. It was not pull-apart like the recipe suggests. I had to cut it apart. Spiders have 8 legs. I have two kids. You do the math. Cutting legs for two spiders would be plenty! The rest of the cookies would just be good to eat, not to look at.

I also could not find chocolate-covered caramels, and didn't think of Rolos (I don't know my candies very well!) so when I stumbled upon the bag of generic peanut butter cups that sounded like the perfect match for my peanut butter cookies.

I admit, I bought the peanut butter cookie mix from Betty Crocker. It just seemed like it would be a lot easier than making cookies from scratch with two very involved kids.

Link to the recipe is above. You bake the cookies according to the directions on the package. When they come out of the oven you put the chocolate-covered whatever on top. The heat from the cookie melts the whatever and then you can stick the legs into the "body" and then the "eyes" (mini M&Ms) stick as well. Because I had chocolate covered peanut butter bodies they really melted quickly from the heat from the cookies. Even though they held their shape (mostly), I found that if you tried to slide them off the tray too fast, the chocolate 'body' would slide off the cookie in a very tasty mess.

After the kids and I decorated their spiders (Levi chose orange eyes for his spider and green eyes for Ellie's) I put them in the freezer for a short time so they would solidify a bit and hold up to the kids handling them for some photos.

They sure had fun eating them! Levi had his gone quickly and was asking for more. Ellie took her time and dove in from the top. She ended up eating more of the chocolate and less of the actual cookie.

The cookies that weren't decorated still had the peanut butter cup on top of them and it was hard to stop eating them! Dangerous!

Our kitchen was a mess and we were hungry so we went and got some take out from the new Panda Express that is just down the street. We were in line and a lady asked Levi "where's your costume?" And Levi said "I am a robot, see..." and he started making all kinds of robot motions with his arms and legs. It was a riot. The food was great too!

Halloween - Klickers (1 of 3)

I wasn't exactly sure what to do with the kids today. Mostly because I have mixed feelings about my childhood experiences with it. I remember it being frowned upon as a pagan holiday most of my life, but there were the pumpkin carvings and trick-or-treatings scattered throughout my development.

As it turned out, it was a beautiful day. I was itching to get outside, and I was sure the kids could relate. We decided to take them out to Klickers and see if there were any pumpkins left. They also set up a mountain of straw bales and prop a long slide off of it so that is fun for the adventurous kids. We have had a lot of rain lately so I was worried about the pumpkins being mushy but we were able to find a couple of good ones.

They also have a rusty old truck out there so we posed the kids with it and hoped they didn't get tetanus.

The kids also loved riding in the wagon that we were using to haul our bounty. Ellie especially got a big kick out of it.

What good little children, posing for momma.

Can't stop at one pose... have to try another!

Klicker's also has a small boat for the kids to play in. Levi ran over to it and climbed in with no hesitations.

Ellie wasn't so sure about claiming the title of Sea Captain.

I told them each to find a window for some more photos.

And as if that wasn't exciting enough, Matt decided to "rock the boat."

Yes, it was a fun day at Klickers Pumpkin Patch.

Trick-Or-Treating, Ellie speaks

This evening was the Downtown Trick-Or-Treat. Advertised as "It's downright spooktacular! Bring the kids in costume to Downtown Walla Walla for a safe trick-or-treat event in the Downtown area from 3-5pm. More than 2000 participants visit for Halloween Treats!" I have to say, it was pretty spectacular. Most of the kids and many of the adults were in full costumes, and people stood outside the businesses and shops with buckets of candy to hand out to the kids. We didn't go in costume, and I think next year it will be worth planning for. It didn't take the kids long at all to figure out what to do with their bags. Even Ellie carried hers along and held it out for candy at each store. At some stores there were two employees passing out candy, so Levi would get candy from one and then go to the second person for another helping. Some people didn't catch on but one gal laughed and said "Some of these kids are smart!"

Tonight during our dinner (split pea soup), Ellie got up on the table, walked over to me and squatted down, peered at me and said "Momma, hi." Other than the fact she was ON the table, it was pretty exciting. I guess we can consider that her first sentence! She has been rambling and babbling a lot lately, little sing-song sounds, a lot of duh duh da da, it is fun to hear her little voice. About an hour after that she said "bye." Once she got it she carried on for quite awhile "bye. bye, bye bye..."

Her little feet padded away and a short time later I heard the quiet muted tap tap of her tiny hand unrolling the toilet paper roll. She is so fast!

I am so glad it's Friday. It's been a tough week. No big plans but hoping to do some catching up around here.

Looking up atcha

The last day of Susan's visit, she and the kids posed for a fun photo on the floor.

Ricky Gervais

The kids have found the "N" song by Ricky Gervais, as sung to Elmo. To say they love it would be an understatement!

They laugh and giggle and scream with delight.

Waitsburg Theater

I couldn't wait for Sunday, the biggest surprise of all for Matt's 30th birthday weekend. I had arranged to rent the Waitsburg Theater for the day. For those of you who aren't aware of it, this is a fantastic resource in our area. Hidden behind the Etcetera's gift shop on 208 Main Street, it is a work-in-progress and a hidden gem. Robbie has been doing most of the renovations himself, and makes the theater available to private parties. I had been planning with Matt's friend Adam behind the scenes to have their annual film festival in the theater today. Unfortunately, Adam did not make it out, and I had some last-minute juggling to do but overall the day was great and Matt was really surprised and elated.

It was really amusing, getting Matt there and walking him into Etcetera's with his eyes closed. I told him to open his eyes and he looked around, surprised, yes, but not sure where he was, or why he was in a gift shop!


Then I walked him back into the theater and he started realizing what was going on and became happier about it.





Susan helped with the decorations and had found some really fun (theater-theme) stuff - a mini clapboard, popcorn and movie reel decorations, confetti that said Matt, all sorts of fun little details. We had some tables up front for drinks and food and snacks.

The first movie was Jaws and I was glad that Matt's dad showed up to watch that one with him because I had to run back to Walla Walla to make lunch. Sometime during that movie Matt's other friends showed up.

I made taco salad for lunch and everyone seemed to like it. We also had the giant chocolate cake for dessert.

Robbie brought out his popcorn maker and popped us all some fresh hot buttery popcorn.

I will mention that because of all the attached gift shop & sale items, this is not a great location for little kids. Mine were running around getting into all kinds of things. But for the adults you can't beat it for a theater rental!

After lunch Susan and Richard took the kids out for a day of fun at the park so I could stay and watch movies with Matt. We then saw Duel and Blow Up.

Following those full-length features we also watched Tanget Media's video for the FurrBall and also their short film Murder.


Matt introduced the film and we watched it in high def! I thought it was pretty cool to have most of the cast & crew from the short film there in the theater to see themselves and their work on the big screen.

Following that there was a good discussion with Jeffrey Townsend before we cleaned up and left the theater.

Between parties

Today Susan and Richard took Levi to Sabbath School and church while Matt and I made lunch.



After lunch Susan had fun fixing Ellie's hair and we took some more photos.





Saturday night Matt went with Brian to the Furr Ball, the Blue Mtn Humane Society's fundraiser, to see that the video they made for them worked properly.

While he was gone, Susan and I made Matt a giant chocolate cake with ganache. I knew he would like that and I needed some redemption from the sad little lemon cake of Friday.

Richard replaced our front door handle, and Ellie tried to figure out the lockbox on our old handle.

Matt's birthday

For part of Matt's surprise this weekend, his mom and Richard came to town. She didn't want to just show up at the house, she thought it would be more fun to "run into us" downtown. I took Matt and the kids to the taco wagon for lunch and let Susan know where we would be. She surprised all of us really good when we went to order and she was IN the taco truck! Yikes! That has been a fun story to tell.



I had planned games and pizza and had family and a couple friends over. Susan planned the games, we had a celebrity name on everyone's back and you had to ask questions to figure out who you were supposed to be.

Here I am trying to give my mom a hint about her celebrity. Can you guess who she was?

We also played 80s Trivia. I was in the kitchen most of the time making the pizza but it was a lot of fun to hear the answers shouted out and the following debates and conversation.

I didn't have much time to make a cake since I didn't want to ruin any surprises for Matt this weekend. My first attempt was foiled when Levi snuck extra water into the batter. I really am no good at icing cakes. Let me just admit that. I hate it because they always look so bad.

We had a lemon cake with lemon filling and a cream cheese frosting.

Thank you to everyone for coming to the party, it was a lot of fun. It wasn't all I had in store for Matt, though...

Levi has discovered that if he pulls a grocery bag over his legs he can wear it like an old-fashioned swimsuit.

Shana's birthday

I had a nice birthday today. I did go to work but got to open some cards and gifts at lunch and then for dinner we went out to Sweet Basil and then took a walk to the Patisserie where we tried the cream filled chocolate mousse (I call it the dome) and it was succulent!



When it was bedtime Ellie grabbed an issue of Modern Arabian Horse, climbed up on the bed, laid down and started to leaf through the pages. It is really fun having a little clone. :)

Pumpkin Patch!

Heading home from the endurance ride, we stopped in Fairview to visit my brother Wes, wife Joanie and daughter Natalie. My mom was also with them since we had dropped her off along the way. Wes thought it would be fun to go visit the local Pumpkin Patch. We took the drive to Sauvies Island and was astonished by the long long long line of traffic waiting to get into the Patch. It was stop and go (crawling) traffic for more than 4 miles. Wes texted me "sorry about this, guess they are busy today."


After crossing the bridge onto the island, we saw the pumpkin patch, and it was a huge field of orange spots.

Lately Ellie has been figuring out how to lower her chest piece and get her arms out of her seat belt, she is quite the little Houdini! After that she learned that by pushing the button she could get her window down and up and down and up and that kept her busy and happy for the long wait into the pumpkin patch.

Levi, typically a good traveler, just watched her and joined in on the laughter.

While it was probably not the smartest move to haul our camp trailer out there, it did get us a prime parking spot, and we wound up having a limo next to us when we were ready to leave.

Wes and Natalie

Obligatory family photo.

Good thing there were three kids for the three pumpkin holes!

The Pumpkin Patch had an Animal Barn, where you could see (but not touch) all varieties of farm animals. Ellie went nuts for the chickens. She started trying to "bwak" at them. They also had a couple of gift shops and food vendors. It seemed like the prices were reasonable but we didn't buy anything. There were massive lines for everything. We had at least a ten minute wait for the portable toilets. That's tough when you have a little kid who needs to use one.

They also had a large section full of pumpkins where you could pose with them, or select some for purchase.

After posing for some photos, we walked around a little bit and found the Cow Train. Levi wanted to ride on that so we got in line. I told my brother he should go get in line for the hay ride (which takes you out to the field to find your pumpkins) so we could be done about the same time. That worked out pretty well.

The kids ran around and moved straw while we waited.

We saw my brother go by on the hay ride before we loaded up on our Cow Train.

When it was our turn to load up, Levi hopped into Rowdy. I really wanted the Ellie cow but another girl had beat me to it. I tried to settle into another cow but my butt was too big to fit! Some of the barrels were cut larger than others and this was a small one. The driver noticed I was having some trouble and glanced around for a solution. I asked if we could trade with the girl in the Ellie cow. He said if the girl was willing that would be ok. So I asked her please, could we trade? I can't fit in this one. She shrugged and reluctantly agreed. I hope her name wasn't Ellie too.

Ellie figured out right away that she should hold on to the handles.

Levi was thrilled. He was all smiles every time I turned around.



The ride took us on a dirt path and the driver would go left and right to make the whole train squiggle behind him. It was bumpy and dusty and in some places muddy. It was altogether too short!



We decided after that to head back to Wes & Joanies for lunch. They fed us a great meal of vegeburgers and the cousins had a chance to play. We also had a gift exchange.

Wes, Joanie & Natalie