Night of the Big Pumpkin

I love Halloween! I have loved it my whole life, and I think I've passed it along to my family!!!! We have so many special traditions that it's hard to name them all! Lots of them involve food, traditional dinners, drinks, treats etc. Some of them include chicken noodle soup on Halloween night in pumpkin bread bowls with brain jello, pumpkin pancakes with boo hot chocolate, graveyard cake, brew, witches brownies, chili. We have lots of fun sharing them with friends and family. We always go to cornbelly's at Thanksgiving Point and Gardiner Village. We play in the leaves and have a picnic. We have 4 traditional songs we sing, 5 Little Pumpkins, BOO BOO BOO, Mr Jack-o-lantern and Have You Seen the Ghost of Tom. We have favorite stories we read, especially BIG PUMPKIN, and Happy Halloween Stinky Face. Of course we have to watch It's the Big Pumpkin Charlie Brown and this year we got to go see Little Shop of Horrors, which was very fun!
This year Jen was in Dracula the Musical, in which she played the mother, and did an EXCELLENT job! Josh had a party with 4 friends and their dates, they had a Dopes Dinner, which is something I did when I was a teenager, SOOO fun! We had 2 family parties with all the cousins and a few fun friend ones as well.
I love this holiday because it's just fun, no strings attached. We can just be silly and crazy and there's very little stress.
WE HOPE YOU HAD A HAPPY HALLOWEEN STINKY FACES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MASQUERADE!!!!!

See what a trip to Italy will do to a Halloween freak?
I found a beautiful mask and some black and white pasta while in Italy earlier this year, and the planning began!!!! I have always been in love with the Phantom of the Opera (seen it 7 times, love it, love it, love it) and have wanted to do a Masquerade Ball for years for our Halloween party. So, this was kind of a dream come true!!!!
It was so fun to plan this party, I went with a black and white and gold theme, decorated masks to make a centerpiece and napkin rings, painted some white pumpkins with paint and glitter and planned around that! I had everything all ready and pictures taken before 3:00 pm and thought I was pretty on top of it!!!
I was really excited when our friends went all out for the party too, they all were soooooo creative and beautiful!!!! (Tara your kitty was so cute, Shannon, Monica, Marcia, Julie, and Amy you were all GORGEOUS!) Even the husbands were in the mood.
We ate a yummy pasta dinner, which Jenica and her two friends helped serve (they were so cute!) played some fun games, and even danced the waltz to the Blue Danube (believe it or not, we really did DANCE!!!!!)
For dessert, I made a black, white and gold cheesecake with a mask and candles for the eyes, (oh so cute :) ) and a chocolate fountain, which didn't work very well, but tasted pretty good.

I was so happy with how the whole thing turned out, other than one small mishap (besides the gloopy chocolate). My centerpiece on the table was a huge vase full of water, glass pebbles and ribbons (along with 7 masks on wooden dowels) I lit some floating tea lights and it looked so pretty. Well, at 6:50 (10 minutes before the party was starting) I heard a crack and a whoosh. I went in to the dining room and water was pouring out of the vase and running all over the table (which of course had 14 place settings with good china and lots of other decorative stuff) and all over the floor, (onto our quite expensive, rather loved wool area rug.) Of course, being the refined lady that I am (ha!ha!) I only let out a few choice words before I started screaming to anyone and everyone to bring me towels of any nature and to start pulling stuff off the table in truly a dizzying speed!!! It was absoloutely ridiculous and funny now that I look back at it! I am very glad most people were fashionably late, because by 7:20 we had dried the tablecloth, changed napkins, put the vase back on the table (crack and all :) ) taken the EXTREMELY heavy rug down to the storage room, replaced the chairs, mopped and dried the floor, thrown the 8 beach towels we'd used to mop up into the wash, put all the centerpieces back on, and not let the pasta burn. I was sweating like a stinkin' pig, so my lovely wig was all droopy and my eyeliner was running, but thank goodness for that beautiful Italian mask!!!!

So, I guess the moral of this story and of all my party stories is......go with the flow, things will not always be perfect, there will be unexpected "surprises"....always. I have been nicknamed the "party girl" by many members of my family and friends, and I guess it's true, but I have yet to learn that no matter how well you plan, you never know what's going to happen, and to just grin and go with it. It will always turns out fun!!! That's what Halloween to me is all about anyway...... fun!!!!!

OOOOOOOH I Love that mask :)

Happy Birthday Jaemon!!

Our sweet little Jaemon is 6 today!!!!

He's always been a very sweet little guy.

Some of his favorite things are, treasure maps, Scooby Doo, playing with his brothers and sisters, singing REALLY loud, reading Halloween books and catalogs, going to school, and making up funny words.

We had fun celebrating today with the traditional birthday "pancake" with 6 candles in it on the birthday plate!!!!!

I brought cupcakes and treats for his kindergarten class and he got to wear a special crown!

All he wanted was a cool marble rollercoaster...look at that face!!!!

We went to the movie, which he loved!! Then we went to Wingers, or the "popcorn place" as he calls it for dinner!

Jaemon LOVES Halloween, so it was only fitting to have a Halloween cake!! We love you soooooo much little monkey, you make our family happy and we're so glad you're a part of it!!!!

What season is it?

So the weather man forecasted a storm on the day we were supposed to go up to see the beautiful fall leaves.....well the storm arrived and, look at what it left!!!!!

I love snow, I love the clean, crisp air and the fresh look of everything.....but....in it's time and place!!

But, I really love the in-between summer and winter season, called FALL!!!! I don't want to miss it, so GO AWAY snow....at least for a few weeks, till after the BEST HOLIDAY OF ALL!!!!!!!!

At least it didn't snow on our pumpkin and corn stalks, because they could get frozen and not be able to be used for Jack-o-lanterns for the BEST HOLIDAY OF ALL!!!!!!!!!!

Did I mention at our house we think Halloween is the BEST HOLIDAY OF ALL?????

Just ask Jaemon, he has wanted to carve this pumpkin since the first week of August, we can't wait!!

Soooo, lets hope that the leaves stay pretty for a few weeks more, and that it is cool and fallish, but no more SNOW!!!!!!! PLEASE!!!!!!

Gracie starts Preschool!

Our baby Gracie started pre-school this week. I'm not sure how I feel about it, but she for sure, is thrilled! She was not really happy that I stayed for her first day, she informed me that she was a "big girl and mommy needs to go home by hersself." So, I guess that tells ya how it really is!

I think this is going to take some getting used to, I still think of her as a tiny baby, and I am going to miss her. I know, it's only a few hours twice a week, but it still means, yet again, that my babies are growing up.

What should I do now? I guess I'll find out!

Have fun baby, preschool is so fun, and you'll love it!!!

9/11

Yesterday was the 8th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, Pentagon and the crash in Pennsylvania. Time really does make us forget, but yesterday I attended a memorial service that Tyler sang in. It made me remember.

They sang "Proud to be an American."

There were so many servicemen and women who died trying to help those in the buildings, there continue to be so many fighting against terrorism. Unfortunately, there are so many American's who do nothing but complain and whine about so many things. There was a brief message about this at the memorial. In essence, he said that we of all people, should be GRATEFUL, THANKFUL, and step up to the plate and teach our kids about RESPECT and to REMEMBER all those who have fought, continue to fight and those whose lives were taken, in wars, in the terrorism attacks and in the future. Whether we like it or not, whether our political views coincide or not, whether we're black or white, male or female, young or old, big or small, we ALL should step it up, just like we did in the days following the attacks. We have a great, amazing country to live in. Having been raised in another wonderful country, I know for sure that we are very blessed, in both USA and Canada, with freedoms that so many people take for granted. I hope with all my heart that I can teach my children those values that will help them to never forget.

It's people like this sweet veteran couple that have helped us to be free. I hope I don't let them down!!!

Raspberry Jelly!!

Our neighbors have a HUGE raspberry patch.........

Sooooo, we picked a whole bunch!!!!!! And made raspberry jelly!!!! YUMMM!

First we juiced the berries,

Sooo delicious!

Then we added sugar and pectin....

Stir, stir, stir.....

Ladle into cute little bottles...

Process.....

Set them out to set....

Look how pretty they are!!!!!

I actually really hate raspberries! I love the taste, but can't stand the seeds, so when we first got married, Jon's dad made me raspberry jelly, and I loved it! Well, since he's in Samoa (and has been in various South Pacific Islands for many summers now) we've started doing it on our own! The kids are actually somewhat excited about the process, well, maybe not the big ones so much, but they are all very excited about eating that yummy jelly on toast and pancakes!!!!! Delish :)