The Accidental Boilermaker

Halloween looked a little different this year. We decided no trick-or-treating which we had prepared the kids for in advance. So instead I bought a bunch candy and toys (mostly from the dollar store) and put up a few extra decorations last night. Evelyn and Jameson woke up and they each had a bucket of treats and one bowl of tricks.  The best trick was the exploding pumpkins.  We did the experiment a few times making different changes, trying to get the best reaction.    A nearby church hosted a drive thru trunk-or-treat. It was very nice and not crowded at all. The kids got some pretty good candy too.  From there we went to the zoo one last time.  We were at the zoo opening day and closing day this year.  We took a few more pictures back at home. Then Evelyn and Jameson watched a not-so-scary movie on Netflix before dinner.  We turned all our outdoor lights off and no one came to our door. It was a little sad to not trick-or-treat but it was stil...

We had competing spirit weeks at our house. Monday was mustache day and hat day Tuesday was neon day and funky feet day. Wednesday was pajama day and favorite color day.  Thursday was crazy day and school colors (blue and gold) day. And finally Friday was Halloween day and pajama day.

We carved our pumpkins. I made the Batman stencil for Jameson’s pumpkin. For Evelyn we used a stencil that came with a carving kit I broke down and bought from Meijer while also buying candy for Evelyn’s class party tomorrow (her teacher only emailed us about the party on Wednesday).  I cut the witch’s broom kind of skinny but it didn’t break.

 We made skeleton sugar cookies today. And a few pumpkins thrown in for good measure. Jameson helped me make the dough in the morning and then we cut and decorated after school. They turned out delicious!

 We missed out on apple picking this fall. Looking back we should have gone over Labor Day weekend but that’s too early - not enough varieties are ready for picking. But then we were busy every other weekend and then Jameson got quarantined. Oh well as Evelyn put it this week “not this year, Covid’s here!”  We did go to the pumpkin patch today and that was fun.  After picking out pumpkins, it was time to work on the yard and all the leaves that had come down. So many leaves.  Evelyn and Jameson had great fun jumping in the leaf pile, being tossed into the leaf pile, and being dragged out to the curb on the leaf pile. They played and ran around while Nate mowed and I raked the southside of the house.  By the time we finished it was too late to make dinner so we ordered a pizza. 

 We finally made it back to the zoo. Usually the zoo is only open weekends in October for trick or treating but this year it’s open all month long (but no trick or treating).  It was a nice day and lots of animals were out. We even saw a Joey sticking out of his momma’s pouch.  There were lots of pumpkins around and a few other Halloween decorations. It just felt nice to be able to go out and do something. 

 We had our first overnight guest since March this weekend. Mimi came over on Friday and did she keep us busy. She brought lots of fun stuff for Evelyn and Jameson.   We worked on the deck, mowed the grass and raked leaves. And that was just Saturday. On Sunday we cleaned out the garage.  Nate found a big toad Saturday evening. Evelyn and Jameson named him Pumpkin.