happy halloween!

Happy Halloween!

What a fun day. A's jedi costume turned out super cute. It actually lasted through karate games ("Kicks or Treats" at his karate school - fun!), trick or treating, and a get-together at home afterwards. The cloak has a hood too, which was on for most of the evening. Verrrry jedi.

G, well...As I suspected, after his insistence on being a ghost, G changed his mind. He is 3 after all. Nothing could go on his body or over his head. We had a moment of octopus costume from last year, but then it was decided that G was going to be G. He did wear a big fancy wizard hat to trick or treat in though - perfect!


This evening before friends arrived, the boys visited with all of the neighbors on our block who were outside. One neighbor was skooting throughout the neighborhood with streamers on his back passing out coins. It was still very warm outside (on Halloween! we usually freeze!) and pretty light, so everyone was outside enjoying the weather.


The boys had fun trick or treating - with 4 spunky boys out together it made it just that much more exciting. I think this is the first Halloween we didn't have to come home to warm up! Fun night.

Happy Halloween!

See, I knew I had enough time...

Woo hoo! Today we got a lot more done on the costumes. We pinned and cut and sewed. Only a few loose ends and tidbits to finish for tomorrow. See? Pleeeeeeeenty of time. A will be a jedi, and G will be a ghost (if he'll actually wear it after asking for it ;))!


We have people joining us Halloween eve so that the kids can trick or treat together. We are lucky to live in a neighborhood full of families and kids and where so many people know each other - so even just walking down the sidewalk is exciting as everyone runs into neighbors and chats, those answering the doors see if they can guess who is inside the costumes, the sidewalks are full of kids, and it is generally a fun, happy, busy evening! We will come back in to warm apple cider, good food, and perhaps even a Halloween special. The boys made a deal with me to trade in most of their collected candy for their favorite fair trade chocolates and some special goodies - things that they like since they don't usually like much at all from their bags (but costumes and trick or treating are too much fun to miss!). Should be a fun night. I plan to take lots of pictures - hope you do too!

procrastination.

pro·cras·ti·nate
Pronunciation: \prə-ˈkras-tə-ˌnāt, prō-\
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): pro·cras·ti·nat·ed; pro·cras·ti·nat·ing
Etymology: Latin procrastinatus, past participle of procrastinare, from pro- forward + crastinus of tomorrow, from cras tomorrow
transitive verb : to put off intentionally and habitually
intransitive verb : to put off intentionally the doing of something that should be done

I know. I am procrastinating. I don't know what it is about sewing Halloween costumes. Maybe it is the sewing extravaganza from last Halloween that I'm remembering. The boys want to be more simple things this year, but still...I'm just nowhere near done.

It isn't like I haven't tried to start. But you know how procrastination is. There are so many other things to do. Things that "have" to be done. Like carving pumpkins. Like working in the garden (and watching the birds and the chipmunks).


Doing crafts with kids.


These cute kids - that distract me - they want to read, play, snuggle, have fun, do things.


Or what about all of those other things that are absolute musts. I mean, Sunday was chicken day after all, so we had to drive to the farm, pickup chickens, and then process them, make stock.


Then today was another scheduled farm pickup - my turn to drive down. Gotta go!


And what about all of those photos that just HAD to be taken. I just can't stop taking pictures!


And it gets dark so early now, and how can I sew when elaborate light saber dance performances are going on in the dark living room? It's too dark to sew anyway. And I can take pictures.


It doesn't help that I have allergies and a sinus infection. And, of course I need sprouts. Mmmmm, sprouts. s.p.r.o.u.t.s...


Oh, right. I still have two days left, right? I sketched the ideas out, had the boys lie down on the fabric and I drew where I want to cut - and actually have a ghost costume cut out! You see, that is progress.

I'll have time tomorrow (or maybe tomorrow night or even Friday). The sewing machine is too loud when the boys are in bed anyway, and I have to post to my blog, and of course mess with my iTunes playlist...it needs to be just right, you know, so that it is the right mood to get the most work done.

Of course, with all that in mind, maybe it is not procrastination after all. Wikipedia states "Psychology researchers also have three criteria they use to categorize procrastination. They believe that procrastination must be counterproductive, needless, and delaying."

Well, maybe delaying, but certainly not needless, come on!

It also states "For an individual, procrastination may result in stress, a sense of guilt, the loss of personal productivity, the creation of crisis and the disapproval of others for not fulfilling one's responsibilities or commitments. "

Nope, definitely not me. Not procrastinating. I'm perfectly happy not sewing costumes!

Pumpkin Driller.

It is that time again. The time of hand drilling holes in pumpkins. A waits all year to drill this way. He can drill hundreds of holes in no time at all.


He has drilled only two jack'o'lanterns so far, but we have a few more saved to carve this week.


He'll be ready.

late october garden.

While the nights have been cold, we haven't had any hard freeze yet. So, while most of the heat loving plants are long gone, we still amazingly have a lot going on in our garden. As the sunflowers are picked clean by the goldfinches, we still have swiss chard, parsley, flowers, raspberries, chives, and many other goodies packed in with other interesting things like ornamental cabbage and millet (planted by Chipper, our resident chipmunk, all summer).


This weekend we do have some low temperatures coming along with rain and possibly snow, and if so, much of our greenery will be gone. We are going to go out today and tomorrow to cut the last bits of anything edible - bring in the brussel sprouts, dehydrate the rest of the parsley, cut all the last bits of chives and swiss chard and nasturtiums, and pluck those last sugary sweet raspberries. I also like to leave some things for the winter rather than rip everything out - they look lovely in the snow, and give the wildlife a few things to nibble on as it gets colder.


I do have one last spot where we are growing leeks, radishes, and spinach - which we will grow and pick as long as possible...just to give us that last hurrah of the garden.



While I know we won't get much (if any) snow, we often do get flurries at least once by Halloween. The boys are very excited and have been looking to the weather forecast to be sure they haven't yet changed their prediction. If we get any little flurries they will be greeted with open arms as we once again spin on this big rock into the next season.


More garden photos posted to Flickr...