Festive Fall....

October is such a great month...I love it because of Thanksgiving and Halloween, the crispness of the air, the blowing leaves and decorating for fall. However, I have to say, I am glad it is all over! I will be putting away the clutter to enjoy a nice bare look before I decorate for Christmas. This morning...November 1st, Ella wakes up and promptly tells me that Christmas is next!! Gotta love the anticipation that kids fill you with!

The night before Halloween I got together with my brother and his family for the first time to carve out pumpkins. I made homemade stew with dumplings, homemade rubhard crumble pie and a apple crumble pie. It was delicious! We had so much fun, and the kids except for one, really enjoyed my stew which had plenty of turnip, parsnips and cabbage mixed in with all the other delicious ingredients! I finished off the night by roasting lots of pumpkin seeds...yum!

I had a big pot of beef stew on the stove and I was preparing two pies.

Earlier in the day, I had to clean out four pumpkins with the help of the kids. How is it that after 15 years of carving pumpkins, I only now discover the little carving sets at the dollar store??? They work great!! I'm going to buy a few extra so that I can use them for squash throughout the year. Patricia my sil, brought quite a few pumpkins and she carved out some beauties! She inspired me to carve one out with lots of stars...and this is my favourite, even though my stars are wonky.

I was dreading cutting the tops off and cleaning out the pumpkins till I discovered the $ store kits for carving pumpkins.

I made up treat bags with the help of Ella for the trick or treaters and Ella enjoyed her first Halloween party at pre-school! She dressed up as a cheerleader and is not shy in showing you how to cheer!

The kids all dressed for Halloween were raring to go...well, maybe not Ben...but he had the excuse of taking his little sister around so he will get some candy without having to dress up beyond wearing an army jacket! We are waiting on some friends and cousins to show up to join us and then they are off!







All in all it was a great October, a great Halloween! The only sad thing was my nephew was insulted by a rude adult about his weight...nothing like making a young kid feel bad about himself in the hopes of guilting a kid out of a bag of candy! My brother and sister in-law were really hurt by this...and Patricia talks about it on her blog which you should check out...you see, her son, my nephew has Aspergers and he hasn't gone trick or treating for years...he was so happy to go with his cousing Jack! Why can't people be more thoughtful in what they say?? That old saying of "stick and stones will break my bones but words can never hurt me"...is a lie! Anyways, I hope that Mathew remembers how much he is loved and how we appreciate his unique take on things!