Happy Halloween

Growing up in a strict religious home we didn't really celebrate Halloween. We had harvest parties and celebrated the real reason for the season, the bounty of food we would now have to live off of through the winter. I have very few memories of trick-or-treating, or costume parties. There are a select few. I remember my mom dressed up like some kind of karate person with a crazy mullet wig and makeup. And dad as a senior citizen farmer.

Now raising our own kids we have to decide what to do, how much to be involved in and what to tell them about all the things they see. I was not expecting all the questions about Vampires - based off of a Walgreens display.

Levi has been looking forward to Halloween for the past week and I am not sure what sparked it. But he wanted to be a RED ROBOT. So I decided to make it happen for him. Something about being a parent inspires you to make other people's dreams come true.

We happened by Goodwill a week ago and I took a look at all the costumes. No robots, but they did have a cute medieval style dress for Ellie. I didn't want to dress her like a princess with all the Disney branding that I had been seeing lately. Something simple. So for about $6 she was all squared away.

I do not have much, if any, experience in making costumes. I felt kind of bad for the little guy even before I got started. Oh sure, I had my moments of surfing Amazon and Target, looking for something I could purchase that he would settle for, but none of those really interested him. So I brought home some boxes. I put a want ad on wallawallafreecycle for some dryer vent hoses (and found some!) We went to Wal-Mart and bought red spray paint and red duct tape. He was pretty excited about that! My mom's friend Robert stopped by with a box of clothes for Levi that his son had outgrown. It was lucky that in that box was a Darth Vader one-piece with the colored buttons on the chest. I decided to cut a window out of the box so people could see the buttons if he wore that underneath.

Well I worked on his costume for about a day and a half and figured out something that would work. Bless his little heart, he loved it. He was so excited to try it on time and time again as I was trying to get all the holes in the right places. Of course he couldn't wear it in the car, so he had to wait until we got downtown to put it on for real. We taped him up and he took a couple steps and promptly tripped on the curb and fell down like a tree trunk. He did not realize he could not bend his knees as high or take as long a stride as he was used to. Thankfully he was not hurt and still had a great attitude (I think seeing a hundred other kids in costume had something to do with that). He posed for a photo and was excited to get going!

The kids both filled up their buckets going up and down Main Street downtown and some of the side streets.

By the time we were done the downtown circuit we were getting hungry, so we stopped in at Sweet Basil and ran into Jenee' and her folks and Ben & Becca and Kai.

We came home and they wanted to go around the neighborhood. So we did that, we ended up walking all the way down to Oma's house so she could see them.

On the way home we stopped at one house with an older woman. She and Levi chatted for about five minutes. He is such a little social bug! He was telling her "well after Christmas I will be five and a half, " to which the woman replied, "well after Christmas I will still be 81!" He just looked at her. "Well..." The woman said "Ha! That got him!" So we walked away. As we were leaving Levi says to me "That was sure a nice lady. And she was so old! And her skin was sure bumpy."

Levi was wanting to start conversations with every homeowner. One woman he was telling all about everything... "My name is Levi and I am five, and my sister is Ellie and she is two (to which Ellie will hold up two fingers and say "two old"), and my dad is at home, we're a four-way family." It is just so fun to hear what he will say next. Everyone to him was "so nice!" I am glad he still has appreciation for people who give him things. We even had a police officer stop his patrol car, get out and walk around to give the kids candy.

On the last stretch for home Ellie was getting tired. She would tell me "I tired of this." That is her new phrase. She is "tired" of the current activity.

All told the kids collected about four buckets of candy between the two of them. The 81-year-old woman gave them apples and they were excited about that. In fact, they wanted to eat those right away! I am glad to see they still value their healthy options. Matt and I are sharing the candy with the kids, just a little bit a day and it should last us well into 2012.

Pumpkin Butter, fail

Today I decided to take all my pumpkin guts and try to turn them into pumpkin butter, a recipe I had seen on the Krazy Coupon Lady website. While I was sorting the seeds from flesh, Ellie decided the dishes needed to be done and she was just the gal to do them! She had a very enjoyable time playing in the water with the pots.

Later on Levi decided he wanted a turn to do the dishes. Kids and water are such a happy combination. Especially when you add bubbles!

I did not have apple cider vinegar so I substituted white vinegar. Not a good idea! I am afraid the entire day that it took for the vat of pumpkin to cook down into 'butter' was for naught. It tasted ok at first but then a strange flavor took over and you just don't want to eat any more. For shame.

The kids and BeBe have a special connection. Levi has been sitting with her and petting her and then showing me how he can get BeBe to calm down.

Ellie has been helping me take the dogs out to go potty. She insists on holding the leash. A couple of times they have taken off for a sprint to the door and pulled her down since she doesn't let go. She hops up and tells me she is brave!

Family Fun

We were aiming to be in Portland again this weekend to celebrate my brother's 30th birthday, and my birthday with my dad since he's in town. But after weighing the importance of using the time to get the windows done (and the cost of gas) we decided to stay put.

My mom's birthday was also coming up soon and Friday afternoon seemed like a good day to get together for some family fun.

A co-worker gave me a bunch of pumpkins that she had grown. They were the perfect size! It was wonderful to have so many without spending any money on them. We took them over to mom's shortly after four pm.

My mom had pre-made cookie dough and she had that ready for us to roll out. We used her holiday themed cookie cutters to make leaves, pumpkins, turkeys, and cats. The kids had a lot of fun learning to roll the dough. Then they went into the oven and we had dinner.

Mom made baked potatoes, kale, carrots and black-eyed peas. She had grown the kale and carrots in her garden this year. Ellie had all her vegetables eaten before anyone else even sat down. Levi was skeptical about the kale but was willing to eat it in order to have a cookie for dessert.

After dinner we carved our pumpkins. I had printed out a couple of free patterns for everyone to choose what they wanted. Levi wanted a spider in a spider web (I think that is what I did for him last year) but I couldn't find that pattern this time. The closest I got was a spider, a profile of a face and a hand. He thought that would be great.

Ellie chose the horse (no surprise there!) I was going to do a scaredy cat but after carving two I had my fill of sawing up pumpkins for the evening!

Matt carved a neat Jack-O-Lantern with a happy face on both sides!

As if that wasn't enough fun, we then had cookies to decorate! My mom had an orange gel and s'mores icing. She also had green sugar sprinkles and multi-colored sprinkle dots. The kids were really into that. It was hard to keep the knife on the cookies and out of their mouths. When we were all done we got to take a plate home of the cookies they had made.

After loading up the (new to us) Suburban we discovered it would not start, the battery was dead. So Matt took my mom's (new) Suburban home to get the jumper cables, came back and had it going again in no time. We are not sure if it is a battery issue or an electrical issue at this point. (But otherwise I am loving it) :)

We had a good rain so we didn't put the pumpkins outside tonight. I had forgotten to buy candles. Fail.

Barbie's birthday

"Somehow this didn't make it on to my calendar, but today was Barbie's pretend birthday. To celebrate, the kids decided to have a pretend pool party, complete with pretend swimming. After that they emptied a whole box of q-tips onto the floor." - Matt

Black Cat Cookies

As a couponer, I get a lot of emails from companies trying to promote their products. I usually hit delete right away unless I see a coupon to print.

Well Land O Lakes sent out recipes with their promotional email this time, and they happened to be Halloween themed. I couldn't resist a look, and I spied these adorable Black Cat Cookies. The nice thing about them was other than the candies, I had all the other ingredients stocked in my cupboard.

They were fairly easy to make, although time consuming. Very tasty too!

Just notes

Ellie is pointing out letters: e and o; also the number 9. She is also recognizing and identifying colors.

Levi finished up his last night of karate tonight. For some odd reason he was the only student there in his class so he had undivided attention from Sensei Cindy, which he really responded well to. I had only paid for one month and there is no class on Thursday so this was it. I think he learned a fair amount, but it was more tournament-based then I had realized initially. It wasn't really what I had expected, it is more of a lifestyle then a set of classes. They are ongoing all the time. I am used to classes that have a start and a finish for all the kids, this was not that. But I am glad he had a chance to be a part of something again.

The Beard has a birthday

October 22 was Matt's birthday and after lunch he decided that what he really wanted to do was to take a drive. He decided on Little Goose Lock & Dam, about 68 miles north east of our house.

It was a beautiful day for a drive and as the spirit of adventure faded along the endless highway, both kids and I nodded off for a nap. I woke up in time to see some familiar roadway, a curvy narrow highway that led us to the Home On The Range endurance ride last spring.

Upon our arrival at the dam, the kids woke up and had some fruit snacks, ready for the next adventure.

They were very interested to see the dam, and the multitude of fisherman lined up along the fence. It looked like one man had caught something and we watched him walk down the length of the fence, but then as he got to the corner of the wall it appeared his line had broken.

We wandered around a bit, the kids enjoying the sights, and made our way over to the fish ladder.

Not much to see here, other than water. We continued our little walk around to the Fish Viewing center.

Wow there were some big fish hanging out down there! I think I learned the difference between a Carp and a Salmon.

After we relaxed with the fish and watched them swim by slow, and fast, a door opened to the side and a woman said hello and asked us if we would like to see inside her "office."

She took Ellie on her lap and showed the kids how the fish swim through the channel and she counts them with her special keyboard, recording what breed of fish and if it is a salmon, if it is wild or from the hatchery. She was very nice and talked to use for quite some time.

Matt was just loving the whole style of the building. He is very nostalgic and it reminded him of all the educational places he visited as a kid.

Back outside again and it felt a bit like a prison, with the chain link topped off with barbed wire.

Here is a nice view of the dam from the parking lot.

We drove up a hill to get a different view. It's just as impressive. The lock is really something to see.

When it's windy, cold or rainy, Ellie likes to have her hood up. It was a bit windy today and she had a hard time keeping the hood on her head.

We found something old and rusty to play on. A ranger drove by but didn't stop.

The kids did some more running around. Nothing beats some good old-fashioned exercise in the fresh air!

Ellie's latest fascination is with rocks. She loves gravel because she can pick up lots of little rocks and throw them down and do it all over again with the endless supply.

The beard seems to be having a good birthday. Speaking of beards, here is a great site to check out if you have one, or know someone who has one. The Beardly.

Once we had our fill of the Lock & Dam we drove onward to the Lyons Ferry Fish Hatchery. The historic Union Pacific Railroad bridge is an awesome, and overwhelming, sight to behold.

We went in the visitor center and I learned that Steelhead are smaller than Salmon. Then we hiked over to the Juvenile fish tanks and didn't see a whole lot. Only a couple of the tanks even had water in them. There were some tiny fish we could see jumping but overall it was a bit disappointing. Wrong time of year, I guess.

After the kids had a chance to check out the tanks, we walked over to the bigger pond. It had a big net over it and we saw a dead bird that had tried to dive through it to catch a fish, just hanging there.

We saw a couple of fish jumping in the water but otherwise it was really quiet.

On the way back to the Suburban, Ellie decided to show off her mad balancing skills that she has learned in Kidnastics. We thought about visiting Palouse Falls while we were in the neighborhood, but it was getting late so decided to do that another time.

The drive back to town must have gotten to the kids, because Ellie decided to take off her shoes and socks, and pull her jacket on over her legs. She had fun hiding and playing peek-a-boo and the laughter ensued! Levi looks half-asleep here, but don't let that fool you, he is just recharging.

How to celebrate a birthday? We decided to check out Frosted, Walla Walla's new cupcake shop. I love the decor and the whole atmosphere. We got four different flavors. Levi picked out Candy Cup because the topping had M&Ms. Ellie got Red Velvet (with candy hearts), Matt tried the Mochacinno and I got the Boston Creme.

I tasted the kids' and I must say they were really good. The frosting was good and I am not a frosting person. I usually scrape off all the frosting before I eat cakes or cupcakes. Ellie's I think was cream cheese based and Levi's seemed to be kind of an Oreo blend. Matt was happy with his. I was not thrilled with my selection. It just wasn't very good. I was expecting more creme in the center, and could hardly find it. Also the frosting on mine was bitter, and seemed inconsistently so. Overall I think they are a little overpriced. But, it's a neat niche and I hope she sticks around.

So what happens when the kids eat a cupcake for dinner and it's getting dark outside? We walked around downtown, from Frosted over to the Laht Neppur Ale House, and on the way the kids couldn't resist a little leaf gathering and tossing. We decided to order a pizza to go, and while we waited for it to bake Matt ordered some peanuts and root beer for he and Levi. Ellie and I backtracked to Goodwill to look for costumes.

A note here about Laht Neppur. They make the best root beer I have ever had. And it's fun to eat there, because you can shell your peanuts and toss it all on the floor. They have green olives as a pizza topping. Those, combined with jalapenos, makes one killer pie. And live music every so often too. I am a big fan!

At Goodwill I was just amazed with the choices of costumes. They have a whole wall of kids' costumes and another whole wall for adult costumes. I found Ellie two choices. One was a pirate lady dress, and the other was a medieval dress that was fancy without being 'princessy.' So hopefully I can make Levi into a acceptable robot and they will have a real way to dress up on Halloween for the Downtown Trick Or Treat.

Bobbitt dinner in

On Oct 21, the day-between-our-birthdays, Matt's dad Jerry and wife Gail treated us to dinner; take-out from Ming Court. I had never heard of them but it was pretty good. It is fun to eat with other people when you can all order something different and share it all and try so many new things from the menu. We had egg rolls, fried rice, ma po tofu, a curry tofu, broccoli tofu, a mushroom dish, I forget what else, there was a lot of variety and lots of leftovers too! A special thank you to Jerry & Gail for the enjoyable meal.

Shana's birthday

For my birthday this year Matt surprised me with a lunch from the Ice-Burg! I had come home from work and he told me that lunch was ready. I told him "I don't smell anything." I sat at the table and he put a veggie burger and chocolate/peanut-butter shake in front of me. Yum! What a treat.

After work he made me my favorite chipotle macaroni and cheese and Jenee' came over to join us for the meal. She and Maddaly had gotten me some Breyer horses and I thought that was so neat! I think this foal is my favorite one ;)

After dinner Matt and Levi went to the model railroaders meeting. It only happens once a month and they really enjoy it so I thought they should go. Jenee decided that since I had never been to Blue Palm before that we should go there and it would be her treat. Boy was I spoiled today! It was quite the experience. I was impressed with how many options they have for frozen yogurt and the endless toppings are quite a sight to see! After sampling a couple of flavors I decided on some pistachio and gingerbread. Ellie liked the pistachio also.

When we were done with that we went out to Jenee's and watched a movie. I had rented "Bite the Bullet" from Netflix because someone on one of my lists had mentioned it and how it was a horse movie based on a 700-mile endurance ride. It was filmed in 1975 and starred Gene Hackman. Parts of it were really slow and boring but overall I thought it was a good show.

Family, friends, food and horses. Yes, you could say I had a very good birthday!

Pizza!

For my birthday, Doug & Cindy took the family out to eat at Sweet Basil, our favorite pizza shop. We went on Wednesday night since our week was pretty full with Karate on Tues/Thurs evenings. This was the first time we sat in the new addition. There is a kid's corner also which is really fun. It has books and paper and crayons for the kids to draw on. If your child draws a nice picture for them they will frame it and put it on the wall. A special thank you to Doug & Cindy for the meal and gifts! I had a really enjoyable evening :)