Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! We had a big day yesterday when a few friends came over to watch the "Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear"; today we're taking it easy. Since I'm in the throes of a cold I'll be the one to stay home and pass out candy; DH will take the little ones out to trick or treat (and collect donations for UNICEF) while The Eldest will go with some of her friends.

To close out NaBloWriMo, here are some of the pictures I promised from my book club luncheon.

The Middle Child, aka Martha Stewart Jr., arranged the centerpiece:



Black Bean and Butternut Vegan Chili:
(Cooked by my darling DH)



Black Rice Salad:
(I forgot to get a close up before we started to eat!! This was also cooked by DH. The serving dish is a new one I found at Bed, Bath, and Beyond; I love it! I was able to use it for the book club but it will also be great for Christmas, patriotic holidays, and general entertaining since I've decorated my kitchen with touches of red.)



Savory Pumpkin Muffins with Black Sesame Seeds:



Black Olive Tapenade with Carrot Sticks and Orange Bell Pepper Strips:



Ghostly Whipped Cream with Cinnamon Palmiers:



Candied Pecans:
(This serving dish was one of my grandmother's; I'm happy I was able to put it to use.)



The Whole Spread (OK, half of it):



The Whole Spread (the other half):

Halloween!

BOO! Halloween has arrived (or will in a couple of days, but we've been celebrating already) which means the holiday season has begun. Oh, boy; I'm not ready!! I love the holidays but there's so much to be done. The folks over at Sears are having fun with this whole Halloween thing, though; they're catering to the Zombie set these days. Stodgy old Sears; go figure.

I took a cue from the web today and made up a Halloween bingo game for the kids. (OK, I know I found the link to the Bingo game easily, but now I can't remember where so my apologies for not giving proper credit; the game was NOT my idea.) It's titled GHOST and I tailored it for each of the younger two. (I think The Eldest might not appreciate it; just sayin'.) I made a 5 x 5 table on Microsoft Word and filled 24 of the spaces. I used a clip art ghost for the middle spot. For The Youngest, aka The Wild Child, I used the sight words he's been working on. For The Middle Child, aka Martha Stewart Jr., I used her vocabulary words. They used tiddly winks for markers. I printed out all of the words on a separate piece of paper then cut them all apart with my paper cutter, had them fold the words up, and placed them in my "cauldron". (An inexpensive plastic one from the grocery store.) I pulled the words out one at the time and, for The Wild Child, called them out, but for Martha Jr., I read the definition and she had to find the word. It worked out really well. They had to fill the whole board; they were neck and neck at the end. I was down to two words left so I pulled them both out and The Wild Child had to read it himself while Martha Jr. had to give me the definition. I declared a tie!

The Wild Child wasn't too excited about the game at first but by the end, when he was a little more confident that he could do it, he was really into it. They both wanted to play again!

I love it when I get all inspired.

PS: I figured out where I got the Bingo idea; it was over at Pepper Paints.

Halloween

Some years are better than others when it comes to Halloween; this year turned out to be a good one. We hooked up with another family and walked around with them and enjoyed chatting and getting to know one another better. A few of the neighbors with kids joined up with us at various points, tagging along briefly then branching off on their own again. We met some new folks which is always a good thing. We went to an afternoon block party that is turning into a yearly tradition; we enjoy it more every time we go. They have games and activities for the kids that are so much fun. This is the one time of year when all the neighborhood kids are out and about at roughly the same time so my kids enjoy making new connections. The Eldest goes around with her friends now; yes, at 16, she still enjoys trick or treating. The weather cooperated for the most part; it was hot but it didn't rain. After Wilma a few years ago we had lovely weather but the kids had to go out early due to all the debris! This year they were able to go out when it was properly good and dark, so that aspect was fun.

They trick or treated for UNICEF and have a nice amount of change rattling around in their little orange boxes; I'll let you know how much we collected in a future post!

Wear Pearls on Halloween

I am proud to be a part of Girl Scouts as a leader for The Middle Child's Brownie troop. I've been more involved in the past taking on other volunteer positions that involved a lot more work, but I've scaled back this year to focus on homeschooling. I'm still a big believer in Girl Scouts, however, and what they stand for and have the greatest admiration for Juliette Gordon Low, the woman who brought Girl Scouts to the United States back in 1912. She was a Halloween baby and so that day is a special holiday for Girl Scouts of the USA. I just read an article on-line about Girl Scouts who wear pearls on October 31st to honor her memory. Why pearls? Because at one point as she was trying to get Girl Scouts off the ground, Juliette sold her valuable pearls to fund the movement. It is representative of her sacrifice and tireless work on behalf of girls everywhere. I plan to wear my pearls, OK, my faux pearls, on Saturday, even over my Halloween T-shirt!