halloween

I probably won't have much time this week to post here, so I figured I would get it done tonight!
We did go out looking for a scientist costume a couple of weeks ago and it's just not an option. I told Zoe that she would have to choose something else and she picked this firefighter costume. Absolutely nothing else interested her. We went to a few other Halloween events before tonight and everyone loves her in this outfit.
Tonight we went door-to-door trick or treating on the streets in our neighborhood. Zoe was really excited and she had Pete or I come up to the door with her for several houses and then she told Pete to stay with me while she went by herself. People gave her lots of extra candy for being such a brave fireman.
She has a small candy bucket, but it is full. Whenever she has candy like this her favorite thing to do is to sort it and count it over and over again. A lot of it looks quite delicious....

I have explained that Halloween is just one night and that it's over now. She isn't too upset though because she immediately picked up the phone and called Santa. I'm not kidding. She just called him on the phone.

And since we had Bat's birthday, she also announced that it is Uda's birthday [the unicorn], and then it will be Dinosaur's birthday and THEN it is her birthday.

I need to figure out a recipe to make, like, 3 cupcakes. Maybe I can make them out of Bisquick.

candy videos

Trick or Treat!

scary ghost

I could have turned the light on, but I didn't... so this is a dark video from last night while we were waiting for Bat's birthday cake to bake [see below].

Bat's Birthday?

Zoe made this bat at school and when she brought it home she played with it all night and then told me that it was Bat's birthday and wanted to have a party for him. She asked if we could make cupcakes and I told her that it was really late and maybe we could make them "tomorrow after school." Zoe does not forget. Anything.
So, sure enough, yesterday when we got home from school she found Bat and asked if we could make cupcakes for his birthday. She said that they needed to have white frosting with pumpkins on top. I made this round layer and used a stencil and some cocoa powder. It was pretty exciting and a good excuse to have chocolate cake. Bat was very surprised.

fall craftiness

I made these candles by pouring wax into hollowed acorn squash.

Zoe wanted this trumpet. She LOVES musical instruments. We have quite a collection.

make a wish!

We decided to carve the 2 smaller pumpkins last weekend. Pete's is the "silly face", mine is the classic triangle-eyes. Zoe wanted it to have pointy teeth. I think we might try to carve the big giant one this weekend. The stem is getting a little soft anyway, so I don't think it's going to last much longer. We did not go to a pumpkin patch this year. The local fruit stand has the prettiest pumpkins I have ever seen and rock-bottom prices, so we got these there. Zoe picked out the bumpy one. She said that she was going to get the "biggest pumpkin in the whole world."

One of my new crafty projects this year was to make pillows. Constance & I bought felt & pillow-forms and I designed and sewed these for our couch. I think the big tree pillow is particularly successful. Zoe told people who came over all about them "mommy made these!" The felt was only $2.50/yd that day so it won't be too big of a deal to open them up and make some Christmas pillows in a couple of months.

Thanks, mom, for teaching me how to sew!

And, you were right... cutting paper with sewing scissors ruins them.... sorry.

new coloring "books"!

so I heard that these were from Uncle Doug - thanks! There wasn't any info on the invoice/package about who sent it. We got a fuzzy pink jacket too that is just in time for our freezing cold weather - it was 35 degrees yesterday. what?

nine rings?

rings

Zoe has a lot of rings. Rings are one of her favorite "prizes" for doing something good. Even though she has multiple rings for each finger, and it would seem like she wouldn't know the difference, she gets upset when one of them is missing and then we are hunting down the pink, sparkly, heart ring specifically. She likes to show them to people and count them. In this video the rings are sent back home in their "green lemon" spaceship. She has a heart-shaped keyring that we got at the airport - it doesn't seem to know how to jump into the spaceship so Zoe demonstrates how to "sit on your bump" which must be something that they do at school, or maybe it was on tv.

Apples!

Today we went to Jones Creek Farm in Sedro-Wooley. It is about 90 minutes North of us in the middle of farmland. There are a lot of different u-pick farms and honey farms and horse ranches up there. The topography of the area means they have more sunny days then we do closer to the city. It is a prime agriculture space. Constance's friend, Sheri, arranged an apple-picking outing and Zoe & I tagged along. Sheri & her friends picked about 175 pounds of apples. OMG! Sheri rented an apple press and they all went back to her place after to make cider/juice. Good luck with that!

Zoe and I brought home 3 bags of 3 different apples. These green apples are super tart and a little dry. I am going to try to make a pie filling & can it. And some apple butter.

It was a lovely, October day - sunny and 47 [forty seven!] degrees.

We Heart You!

Thank you to everyone who made donations to our Heart Walk Team. We definitely made our team goal and Pete's company {Johansen Mechanical} met their goal. I heard that the American Heart Association was pretty sure they had met their goal of raising 1.8 billion by the end of the day. So, WOW!
It was a cold, early morning - but it did not rain. There were thousands of people at Seattle Center and we all walked downtown to 2nd Street and completed a 5k loop. It was kind of uphill both ways somehow. Zoe sat in the stroller most of the time, with a ride on Daddy's shoulders. When we first started the walk there was a marching band from UW and some fire trucks and stuff and Zoe walked/skipped with us in the "parade". And then she got tired and bored. But we made it back to the finish line without too much complaining.

Heart Walk!

Piano Art

I wanted to show you the awesome canvas-transfer print that I got to hang above our piano. It's 4' x 16" and with a coupon was only $60 at Costco. I love it! Someday I would like to put a frame around it.

Geology Time

We were at Michael's getting some candle wax [more on that soon], and Zoe picked out this science kit where you break apart a block of sandstone and look for polished rocks inside of it. I asked her if she knew what it was and she said that it was a rock with gems inside. She loves the goggles and wears them around the house saying "I'm a scientist!" I asked her if she would like to be a scientist for Halloween and she was excited about that. Hooray for an easy costume!
There were 11 little polished rocks that we found. They were not the "jewels and gems" that Zoe was expecting. She kept saying, "that's not a jewel, that's just a rock." I think she wanted a big, pink diamond - but don't we all?

FORTY INCHES TALL!

We measured Zoe on her tree tonight and she is exactly 40 inches tall!

Pears & Crans

I canned some cranberries & pears. And I got these SHARTMAN labels from VistaPrint [for free!]

park & cookies

We went to a local park last Sunday for some fresh air. I am trying to find the park we went to once with the big rock that Pete & Zoe climbed. There was a nice walking trail and lots of pretty trees in the fall. Can I complain about there being too many parks in Lynnwood...? We'll keep looking, because this wasn't it. But it was still a nice place.

Zoe & I made ghost cookies when we got home while Pete went golfing. He got through 12 holes before a torential rain storm. He was SOAKED. And he is sure that if he had a fancier golf cart with an umbrella holder he could have finished the game.