Spreading Halloween spirit

Monday night at 9pm our doorbell rang, and on our doorstep we found the following note attached to a bag of goodies:

The spooks are after things to do,
In fact, a spook brought this to you!

The treats that come with crypted note,
Are yours to keep, enjoy them both.

The power comes with friends like you,
Copy this, and make it TWO!

We'll have smiles upon our face,
No one well know who "Boo"ed whose place.

And don't forget a nifty treat,
Like something cute or something sweet.

Please join the fun; let's really see it,
And spread some "Boo"s and Halloween spirit!

We were instructed to enjoy our treat (candy, cookies and a small Halloween decoration), place a sheet of paper with a ghost on it that say "Boo"ed on our front door and secretly deliver packages to 2 houses in our neighborhood who didn't have "Boo" on their front door.

This was a really fun project to work on - my brain must have really wanted to ignore my mounting house work because after telling Barb and Suz about what I made for this little sha-do, I realized I may have gone overboard... but it was SO much fun finding cute things that were simple to make (inexpensive - key!), and might appeal to a varied audience with children or without...

So here's what I did:
I had already planned a trip to Joann's on Tuesday to purchase Halloween fabric to make a pillow case for Samuel, so while I was there I took advantage of their 60% sale and purchased additional fabric to make gift bags that were more like a totebag to deliver all our goodies in.

At Michael's I found some wonderful Halloween themed pre-painted wood cutouts, and unfinished wood frames. I painted the wood frames and assembled - pictured top. They cost about $2 to make since everything was on sale. GR said I should market them - but someone on eBay has already beat me to it. Maybe I should come up with a couple Christmas designs instead...

Diane lent me a great Pillsbury Cookbook full of fun things to do with food for Halloween ... we've made lots of interesting things from this cookbook - many of them are on their website. For the goodie bags I made two of their recipes - Ghoulish Gorp (trail mix using peanuts, mini-oreos, raisins, candy corn, and goldfish crackers - pictured bottom left) and Chocolate Gremlins (very tasty! - pictured bottom right). I put the trail mix in little sandwich bags and then wrapped them with a 10" square of orange tissue paper and used a green pipe cleaner to close it shut, creating a mini-pumpkin. I think I'll do this again for Rebecca's Kindergarten class on Halloween.



GR delivered both bags this evening - and didn't get caught! We choose one family we don't know very well on our street, and then another family we are getting to know on the street behind ours... It's hard to only do 2 houses, there are so many houses in our neighborhood, I'd love to do a couple more just to get the ball moving faster and involve more people.

What a smile!

Emily got her school pictures back today and she did beautifully. Usually there's a definitive 'best' picture that makes the choice (and my decision to only purchase 1-8x10 and 2-5x7s) easier, but this year she had two great poses that were hard to pick from. In the end, this is the picture I choose.


This is the other great pose that they choose for her tote bag... Once again, her smile is perfect. Can you see why I really, really debated about this one - so cute!

Going back in time

Saturday, 8 October 2005 - Noon-3:30pm

For the past 29 years Kansas City has hosted a "Renaissance Festival - Festival of Fooles!" (their website is horrifying - do a google search and look at Texas, Ohio, and Michigan - each have a Renaissance Festival just like KCs and their websites are MUCH better!). The RenFest runs for 7 weekends in September and October. They have built an entire 16th-century village filled with townsmen, shopkeepers, merchants, and food vendors all dressed in period costume. And many of those who come just to visit come in costumes as well. Next time we come, we're dressing up! Here's the map of the village, our ticket stub and a sticker the kids got for completing the Amazing Maze.



It's a fun experience for the kids. Throughout the village they have mini-shows happening all day long. At 12:30 each day is a Royal Parade through the village with villagers, knights and royalty. Other mini-shows we saw... jousting, comedy, story telling, and choral performances.

They also have amusement park type attractions, only they are all "man" powered. The kids road a man powered "merry-go-round" where they sat in swings. A group of boys - four at a time - worked in shifts pushing a center post, around and around and around again until a bell was rung and they could rest until the next group of kids were ready to ride again.

The other "ride" the kids wanted to go on was a camel. For $12 we all got to ride, and thanks to Diane, we have a picture to document this first for all four of us. Rebecca was the one who talked us all into doing this, and they really enjoyed the ride.

Shake, shake, shake that tree

1 October 1-4pm

This afternoon was the first (and hopefully not the last) Wakarusa Valley Farm Tour. 10-12 Farms from all over the Wakarusa Valley (as far north as Tonganoxie and Perry, East to Desoto, West to Topeka, and South to Baldwin) participated. Some were mainly for adults and others were very geared to families with children.

There was no way to make it to all of the farms - so we picked three that looked interesting and were "kid friendly." A sheep farm, a pecan farm, and a nursery we go to every summer that had animals, and other autumn things set up for the kids.

The pecan farm was by far the best! When they said "kid friendly," they meant it! Pecans have a green outer husk (see small inset picture on left), then a brown hard shell and the nut rests inside. When the pecan is ready to be harvested, the green husk splits and the brown hard shell inside falls out. To aid in the process, farmers can "shake" the tree using a contraption hitched to the back of a tractor (top picture).

When we arrived they were getting ready to shake a tree so we could help pick up the nuts. It was amazing. Normally they would lay down tarps, first, but I guess they figured we had plenty of hands to help pick the nuts right off the ground (bottom picture), so no tarp was used. I expected a more definitive shake, this is more of a fierce and rapid vibration of the tree - and hundreds of huts rained down to the grown for atleast 60 seconds. It was so cool! We atleast partially filled 3 or 4 - 10 gallon buckets (the ones we'd use for seats at girls camp).



This Pecan farm is family owned ... Dad is a conservationist, and the Pecan's are a family hobby on the weekends in the fall. I can see he and Grandfather having grand conversations about the different "experiments" he's been running on growing and watering techniques. He just mentioned a little bit of what they've been trying with new drip irrigation systems, and planting times to see how they effect crop yields and tree growth.

For $3 I purchased 2 pounds of unshelled, undried nuts. I stuck them in my dehydrator and they are now waiting to be shelled. A friend has a pecan sheller that makes it much easier. I'm going to try and borrow it from her - my pliers work, but it's a slow and tedious process.