Halloween 2013 in Pictures

Superhero poses

Watching the cakewalk downtown

Never fear... Super Girl and Wonder Woman to the rescue!

Trick or treating downtown

Getting their fortunes told -- Wonder Woman will live in NYC and Super Girl will live in Las Vegas

Trick or treating at Grandma and Grandpa's house

Sorting her loot -- see the chocolate eyeballs?

Crying her eyes out, literally

Pumpkin Butter, A Year Wiser

OK, so I totally found the indescribable deliciousness that is pumpkin butter last fall.  I made batches to keep and batches to give away.  This year I am giving none away.  Beautiful green mint jelly with red bows will be Christmas giveaways, but the pumpkin butter is mine.  ALL MINE!

Last year I tried a couple of different recipes.  Now I know that this one is my favorite, hands down.  No other recipes need be tried.  I made several batches this fall, and here are some photos from the last batch.

Getting ready to de-seed the pumpkins

Pumpkins and seeds ready for the oven

Nice and shriveled, ready to puree

Boiling pumpkin butter makes a pretty big mess, the splatter shield helps a little

The finished product, quite messy!

Cooling on the counter before going in the freezer (well, not the seeds)

Halloween on the Square

Our beautiful court house

Saturday we braved the frigid cold to participate in Halloween on the Square.  The morning started below freezing, and by the time the event began on Court Square at 10am it was maybe around 40 degrees.  From 10am-noon there were all sorts of activities set up around the square, and from noon-2pm kids could visit downtown businesses for trick or treating.

Much of Court Square is shaded and it was breezy, so it was quite cold, especially for two little girls wearing only tights on their legs.

The Wonder Woman "power pose"

After visiting the touch and feel station (with plastic pumpkins filled with Halloween scares, i.e. grapes for "eyeballs") and making a first aid kit at a different tent, we decided to go inside and warm up a bit.  So down we went to You Made It! where they had clay for kids to play with.  Sophie made a jack-o-lantern, and Hannah attempted one as well but then decided to make a snowman instead.  This was a favorite activity of the day and a great way to warm up on a chilly morning.

When we ventured back to Court Square around 11am it had warmed up a bit.  Hannah passed on many of the activities (perhaps she's outgrowing them?), but Sophie got her hands messy making slime and got her tights messy while painting.  The painting activity was two canvases, each with half a jack-o-lantern, for kids to add their artistic touches to.  A really cool idea, and it occupied Sophie until we had to drag her away for other things.

As we continued around the square, Hannah did participate in a couple of tossing games, and then we found a line where an artist was drawing caricatures of kids for free.  Sophie wanted him to draw her, so she and Dad stood in line while Hannah and I scoped out restaurants for lunch.  While we were waiting, the costume contest paraded by and we got to see lots of cool costumes for entertainment.

Oops!  She missed the first time.

Posing for the caricature, we enticed Hannah to join her.

We grabbed lunch at Capital Ale, which was a first for the girls and me, and then we did our trick-or-treating around downtown.  All in all, it was a fun day.  And since they're now calling for rain on Halloween, it's good that we had this opportunity on Saturday.

And once we returned home the girls had fun riding the 4-wheeler with Dad to collect leaves in the yard and then play in them, of course!  Can you find them in these piles?

Fall Festival Fun

Last weekend was homecoming weekend at EMS, which for the last several years has included a fall festival hosted at the elementary campus.  It is an event for prospective students and families, but current students are always welcome and encouraged to attend as well. 

The girls went with Dad and Grandma while I stayed home to catch up on some work.  There's typically a wagon ride pulled by horses.

They also played corn hole, made trail mix, painted pumpkins, and passed on learning a dance.  There was a cool, old device used to get kernels off dried corn.  I thought this looked like fun!

And a couple of random pictures of the girls, just for fun!

Is there a girl under there somewhere??

A Typical Monday ... or Not

To start this day of no school, this smiling girl got three more baby teeth pulled.  She wasn't this smiley right afterward though.

It was a bit of a trying experience, but she persevered so the kind ladies at the dentist's office let her pick out three prizes when she was done.  She chose a pencil, chapstick, and an eye patch.  We told Charles the dentist missed and accidentally took out an eye too.

By that afternoon she was good to go and ready to show off the new holes in her mouth.  She devised a trick to find out if the tooth fairy or mom and dad were bringing her coins in during the night.  She laid some of her stuffed animals that make noise right beside her bed.  She knew if she heard noises and woke up or if they were moved in the morning that it must have been mom and dad because the tooth fairy flies.  You'll have to ask her what she found out when you see her next time.

That evening she and I, along with Hannah and Grandma, went to the circus at the fairgrounds.  It was a no-frills, one-ring circus, but the girls seemed to enjoy it.  Here are some (bad) pictures to highlight the various acts.

Looks a little piddly, doesn't it?

Reading the Wizard of Oz while waiting for the show to start

Four horses and acrobatic riders did various tricks

Loved these super strong guys and the amazing things they did on this pole

A beautiful woman went into the cage and then... a white tiger!

Watching the show, mostly with fingers in ears because of the noise

The clown led four big men from the audience in a fun little dancing routine

This young girl (probably Hannah's age) had a back that seemed to bend in two

Here she is again, balancing all her body weight on one hand on a pillar in the air.  Amazing!

Can't really see this, but it was two motorcycles riding in a big metal ball

Before intermission some dudes dressed as transformers came out for a photo op.  'Cause that's what I think of when I think of the circus... transformers, yep.

Juggler ...

... with fire

The same strong dudes from the pole doing other amazing feats.  These guys were mine and Sophie's favorites.

Camels, anyone?

They sit too

Everyone bowing for the finale

Yalla Applesauce Making

Last summer I made applesauce early in the summer and mostly by myself (with help from Grandma about halfway through).  I borrowed a Victorio strainer, a truly awesome device, and I canned my first ever homemade applesauce in 41 pint-size jars.

This summer I still had some applesauce left from last year's canning, given that Hannah first didn't like my homemade sauce, then did like it, then didn't like it again.  We haven't eaten any in awhile, and I had given up on making some this year due to my busy summer and then school resuming again in August.

My luck changed, however, when our Sunday school class at church decided to make applesauce together in the big church kitchen.  Saturday was the day, and it was so nice to do the process with others rather than alone.  We started with six bushels of apples (three Rome, two golden delicious, and one Granny Smith) and each of us came home with 13 quarts of sauce.  Not a bad deal for just under five hours of work!

Washing the apples

Quartering the apples and cutting off the little fuzzy end

Cooking the apples

Straining the apples to make the sauce

My 13 quarts after coming out of the canner