A Spooktacular Halloween

Okay, so we got our pumpkins a few weeks ago, but never got around to carving them until this morning. Life has kept us insanely busy these past months, so we are grateful we even found time to get them done at all. We woke up, had some breakfast, and got right to it, despite my feeling a little under the weather. I've had an ick that has just lingered and keep battling pink eye. Who needs Halloween makeup with that? Anyhow, the kids and DH cleaned both of the pumpkins out and helped decide on a face. I drew the outline and then carved them. My hand was very sore by the time I was done, but I was pretty proud of how they turned out.

After getting some household chores done, K and I both took a much-needed nap. N and DH spent some quality time together. By mid-afternoon, we figured we had better get an early dinner going. After the kids ate, we got them into their costumes. K dressed up as a little devil and N was a cowboy. Ironically, K was a cowgirl last year, but she wanted something "scarier" this year. If only she knew she's too cute to be scary. :) After taking the requisite photo ops, we headed out for trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. As we made our way through the houses, we had to make a special stop at one particularly popular house.

Every year, this house of thespians deck out their garage and yard and put on a free haunted house for all the neighborhood kids. They tweak the theme just a little bit each year to keep it fresh. We never miss it. They were going for a sort of a twisted Puritanical theme. They attract people of all ages to their haunted house, but thankfully tone it down for the little ones so as not to scare them too much. K clung pretty tightly to me, but she was a trooper. N sort of took it all in with an incredulous look of why are all these people acting so strangely. He was startled a few times, but he has a higher fear tolerance I think. One really great feature of their yard is all the great jack-o-lanterns and their detailed carvings.

I love celebrating Halloween and all the spooky stuff that goes with it. The kids look forward to it every year and enjoy putting on different costumes each time. We limit their candy intake to one per day max, so we aren't taking dental trips all winter long. Now we can look forward to lots of family visits with Thanksgiving and Christmas on the horizon. But first, we need to make a trip to get our first eggnog of the season, which typically goes on sale right after Halloween.

Cleaning out the pumpkin guts DH likes to say

Carving takes time

Zipperhead

Jack-0-lantern

Desperado

Little Devil

Ready for tricks and treats

Haunted House getting set up...we were earlybirds to beat the crowds

Old-fashioned stockade

Possessed Puritan

Welcome to our humble abode. Enter if you dare!

Pumpkin graveyard

Just a sample of their carving talent

Trick-or-Treating

Pumpkin Love

For the faithful out there, here is a sweet little poem (thank you to Kelly over at Kelly's Korner for this one) you'll appreciate...

God Picks you from the patch, brings you in,

and washes all the dirt off of you.

Then, He cuts off the top and scoops out all the yucky stuff.

He removes the seeds of doubt, hate, greed, etc.

and then He carves you a new smiling face

and puts His light inside you to shine for all the world to see!

An Oreganic Life

I live in a suburb located about 20 minutes away from one of the most beautiful parts of Oregon, reknown for its proactive approach to taking care of the environment, raising community gardens, and favoring locally-grown organic foods. Back in 2006, Portland was voted the greenest city in America. It has one of the largest, most sustainable transportation systems in order to cut back on urban congestion and air pollution. Many places have limited or completely banned smoking from public places and parks. City buildings are going green in whatever ways they can, including DH's work and the private school I teach at. You might say that it all had to rub off on us at some point.

We try to do the usual things such as carpool, turn off lights, unplug, and recycle. Now we are turning our attention to food. After discovering some health issues, DH was informed by his doctor to improve certain aspects of his diet. We both agreed that our whole family could benefit from this, so we have been working on making healthier choices when it comes to food. We were never ones to overdo any particular bad habit, but we realized that even the little things can add up quickly in terms of calories, sugar, and fat. I am not now nor have I ever been professional nutritionist, so I don't know how much of an impact we are making, but the numbers on the scales are improving. We are also seeing improvements in our overall energy. So now when I go shopping, I substitute certain foods for more organic selections and these tiny changes are making a difference. Many stores are carrying a huge variety of organic foods, so this has made this journey fairly easy. For instance...

• Vitamins. This is the easiest way to improve anyone's nutrition, though it is not enough. The kids take a daily multi-vitamin, though DH and I need to remember to do this ourselves more often. Why is it we take such careful care of our children, but neglect our own choices so much?


• Snacky foods. We allow ourselves the occasional indulgence of a bag of Orville Redenbacher, but try to stick with the all natural Pirate's Booty for snack times. Instead of cookies and chips, the kids snack on granola, yogurt (sometimes we freeze it), or dip carrots into ranch.


• We've cut back on the mainstream sodas in favor of Fresca or Hansen's more natural beverages when we crave carbonation. I know I have a Coke addiction (the soda kind), so it's definitely helped me to cut back on it. We've always tried to limit our children's caffeine intake to the occasional sip, though we allow a caffeine-free soda once in a blue moon. Most meals, they drink water, milk, or juice.


• When I shop, I have to look for foods that are low in sodium and contain no or fewer preservatives. Sometimes, I find this an impossible task when it means saying no to favorite foods. Bacon is one of the hardest to "just say no" to (and we still often say "aw screw it!). Pasta and rice dishes are now special treats.


• We are not so gung ho on these changes that we've denied ourselves certain meals from our weekly menu. DH is a pizza freak, so this one has been a toughie. This is why we try to cut back in the areas that are realistic for us to follow through on. Change is tough for anyone, so to make these changes stick, we are taking our time. However, I've introduced a tomato cheese bread meal into the mix, which tastes a lot like a veggie pizza and that has helped.

• Eating more fresh veggies (canned has high sodium content) and salads more often has definitely helped fill us up during dinner. I try to include at least a couple of salad creations throughout the week. We throw in a variety of toppings to spruce it up too. This can include any combination of veggies such as grape tomatoes, olives, cucumbers, snap peas, carrots, radishes to other goodies like shredded cheeses, croutons, tortilla strips, bacon bits, and cranberries. The salad is often the main course and is paired with a yummy bread or seasoned chicken. I highly recommend tomato basil flatbread which I have found sold at Safeway.

• We have tried to eat more fruit as well. Bananas and apples are the mainstays, but we are trying to throw in some new additions such as apricots and pears. The kids love peppers and the like, so that has never been a problem. When I make a skillet breakfast, they get a healthy dose of onions, green and red peppers. I am still on the picky side of this one, so I just remove what I don't like. Trying to raise my kids not to end up high mainenance with their food, like me.

This past weekend, we added one more thing to our diet. Instead of gorging on a big lunch, we snacked on some string cheese, crackers, and hummus. Baby steps. Are we morphing into crunchy treehuggers now? Can't say that we are (not that there is anything wrong with that). While we are nowhere near where we should be with our nutrition, we making small strides. It's a lot like trying to go green with your cuisine. Most of us aspire to take care of our environment, so we reduce, reuse, and recycle to decrease our carbon footprints. Why not be just as kind to our own health?

Just a walk in the park...

The weatherman predicted that we are having the last of our dry sunshine for quite awhile, so the kids and I took advantage of a beautiful Saturday in the park. Once the rain comes, it stays and stays and stays. There are occasional sunbreaks sprinkled throughout the cold season, but they are far and few between. We took our Border Collie with us to get her out of the house and to experience a change of scenery. We walk her around our neighborhood, but I'm sure that gets boring for her. She had a fabulous time, but was overstimulated by the sights and smells of fall. This was a rare treat for her, so she wanted to sniff everything and take it all in.

We went to a local park that offers everything you could want. There is a huge playground for the kiddies, a covered picnic area for family gatherings or parties, nature trails for walking, a stream that winds its way throughout the park, ponds, and footbridges. It's also a popular site for photographers eager to capture the scenic backdrop. While we were there, a large group of high schoolers dressed to the nines were getting their pictures taken. A young family shadowed us throughout our walk as they took advantage of the fall colors for their outdoor portrait shots. I take along my digital camera for such moments as well.

Fall in love with Fall!

Ta da! This is Rood Bridge Park.

(a popular park known for its beauty and awesome hiking trails)

Autumn in the northwest


The kids and I love this part of the park

Couldn't paint a better picture

N wanted to wade, but we didn't want to disturb the wildlife

Quack Quack

We call this the lily pad pond

(cuz we don't know it's real name)

Monkey in a tree

Have you hugged a tree today?

October Sky

Even though we went to the apple orchard/pumpkin patch last weekend, it was such a beautiful day that we decided to take advantage of it. We decided to visit a place we've been wanting to see for a few years. About 15-20 minutes down the road from our house is Roloff Farms, the family of Little People, Big World fame. Every October, they open up their farm to the public for pumpkin season. They offer a wide variety of things to do to make your visit worthwhile.

We weren't sure what to expect, given the unique nature of their fame. When we turned onto the long road leading to the place, we were taken aback by the long line of cars. It cost $2 to park and it took a little while to find a place, but we lucked out and got spot on the end. Just as were walking towards the entrance, Matt Roloff and his youngest son, Jacob, whizzed by on what looked like a cross between an ATV and a hummer (a.k.a. "Mule"). He came to a stop and was immediately bombarded by fans. There was one lady with bleached, spiky hair that was particularly aggressive about getting a photo with them. Matt was gracious and smiled for a few photo ops. We thought about approaching him too, but didn't want to bother him right then.

We walked through their gift barn and browsed the goodies. They had the regular staples such as blackberry jam and pumpkin butter, and they also autographed photos and jars of Matt's "famous dirt." Why it is so famous, I'm not sure. You could sit on a couch with cardboard cutouts of the family's heads behind you. Next to the store was the food corner, they sold a variety of treats such cotton candy, caramel apples, gorilla kettle corn, and hot dogs. We avoided the food (as we had lunch plans for afterwards) in favor of heading straight to the pumpkin funhouse.

However, just as we walked back outside, K started screaming in holy terror. It took me a minute to figure out why she was suddenly hysterical. A large yellow jacket was on her hand, so I swatted it away just as it was biting into her, leaving a round welt and a wailing little girl in pain. Daddy scooped her up for a big hug and we got her a coldpack from the information booth. Not the best start to her day, but she gradually forgot about her pain as the activities of the farm distracted her.

This wasn't quite what the funhouse you might envision, but rather an interesting display of large pumpkin people hanging out in a model home (see photos below). It was a little hokey, but the kids got a kick out of it. Next door to the funhouse was the hay maze. They did a nice job of creating a labyrinth for the kids to explore. Then it was onto to the far end of the pumpkin field to see a sleeping baby lion and check out the shetland ponies. The kids wanted to take a ride, but DH was in a frugal mood, so we settled for petting a friendly pony through the fence.

Next, we headed through across the vast field to take a fun photo through a wooden pumpkin cutout. We wandered through the patch and the kids inspected the pumpkins still in various stages of growth. Nestled right in the middle of the field was an antique wagon filled with hay bales, pumpkins, and corn stocks. As we made our way back up to the shops, we discovered the petting zoo they call "Zootica." For a $1, you could feed the animals. There were many goats, llamas, and sheep grazing from visitor's palms. I felt a little sorry for them as there so many people crowding them. One little girl kept chasing a fearful and irritated llama around the pen, never giving it a break. Thankfully, N and K were quite gentle with the animals. In a far corner behind a pen, there was an exotic little one called a Patagonian Cavy. It looked a bit like a cross between a jackrabbit and a kangaroo.

The real highlight of the farm is taking the tractor ride tour. They offer to different tours that let you see a pirate ship, treehouse, and an old western town that are hidden behind the trees and only visible by taking the tractor ride. We really would have loved to go, but the charge was a little steep for us, $6 per person or $10 (for both tours) per person. For a family of four, that was just too much, so we opted to go have some lunch elsewhere. As we stood there contemplating whether or not to leave, Zach, the smaller of the twins, pulled in. He often drives the tractor tours and I snapped his photo, immediately feeling bad for doing so like it was a violation. He gave me a little wave and exchanged smiles, which put me at ease and reminded me that he is probably used to it by now, especially during pumpkin season when all their fans converge on the farm.

As we were leaving, we were lucky enough to see Matt Roloff climbing into his "Mule" for another go-around. The aggressive uberfan with the bleached, spiky hair from earlier reappeared. This time she had an orange soccer ball and was bent on getting his autograph. She was waiting beside us and I mentioned how nervous I was to talk to him as I didn't want to be a bother. She replied, "oh I don't care, this is his job. He owes us this." With that, she marched right up to him and got what she wanted. That is exactly the kind of fan I didn't want to be. Later on, I thought more about her comment. The Roloffs don't owe anyone anything. They are nice enough to open up their home to strangers and happily oblige photo ops all daylong. The craziness of it all was a little overwhelming and my hat is off to the family for dealing with their fame as well as they do.

N and I cautiously approached him and asked if he minded posing for a picture with us. He was very kind and only asked that we hurry so the throngs of people nearby didn't rush him (apparently this happens often). I was impressed by how down-to-earth he seemed and thanked him for taking time for us. He smiled warmly and was off in his Mule just as others started to head over. I left with a really good feeling about our visit to the Roloff Farms. My best friend's dad has been bugging me for years about whether I had ever seen their place, long before I ever saw their show on TLC. Well, Bill...you can rest easy that I finally made it over to over there!

After our long morning at the Roloffs, we ate late lunch at the Cornelius Pass Roadhouse McMenamins. Then we took the kids to a park we'd never been to before. They played for awhile on the swings and climbed a large boulder first. Then we took the wooded loop around the park for a nature walk. Along the way, we saw many people playing along the disc golf course (played with frisbees). Of course I couldn't resist the autumn foliage and got very snaphappy with the camera. The whole day was wonderful with a lovely October sky with many memories made along the way.

Welcome to the home of Little People, Big World!

Putting on a brave face after a bee sting

Pumpkin Funhouse

Petting the pony

View of the farm from the pumpkin patch

Old-fashioned wagon

Where is the great pumpkin Charlie Brown?

Squashes and gourds

With my little pumpkin


N and a baby lamb


N, me, and the Roloff family (paper version anyway)


You can buy dirt...alrighty then


Zach Roloff driving the tractor tour



With Matt Roloff, such a sweet man


DH and N having a swinging contest

Giddyup grasshopper!

Reaching new heights

Two roads diverged in a wood...such a Robert Frost moment here

Nature is as nature does

Such a serene park

Autumn Glory

Pirates and Pumpkins

We woke up this morning with the intention of taking it easy all day to help me recover from this illness I've been battling. The kids haven't been at 100% either, so we thought a day of rest would do us all some good. Then we got to thinking about our weekend schedule for the rest of October and realized how booked we were. We knew if we wanted to make it to the pumpkin patch, we had better do it today or not at all. So we got right up and out the door to make the most of the day before while the weather was holding. It was a little on the chilly side (mid 50s) and overcast, but tolerable.

We made our annual trip to Oregon Heritage Farm, an apple orchard and pumpkin patch all in one. One of the things we love about this place is how they help with fundraising for local schools. Today, a nearby elementary school and a local high school ski team shared in some fundraising efforts by putting on a pirate festival. This was a nice change of pace from previous years and so we were happy to be a part of it.

They had so much going on that we couldn't even get to all of it. There was the usual big, bouncy apple house and hay mazes (both open and covered). There was the face painting, goodies to eat, and a tractor ride through the orchard (we passed on that this year since there were so many other things to try). There was the pumpkin patch and country store that was stocked with all the must-haves. Hubby had to stop me from buying up half the store. So we settled on a bag of Honeycrisp apples, dried apple potpourri, apple butter, caramel bars, and two small ears of indian corn for decoration.

This year they had some simple carnival-style games that the kids got to play and various performers to watch, such as Flamin Carmen (a fireball dancer). Perhaps the most fun we all had was at the exotic bird booth. They had some macaws, parrots, and plenty of others whose names I can't recall. There was one bird named Bodi. He was adorable and so friendly that he left DH a fun little present as he perched on his shoulder. We all took turns letting Bodi sit on our hands. He reminded me so much of a bird my grandparents used to have and makes me want one.

After making the rounds of the farm and hanging out with the pirates, we headed out for a late lunch at Five Guys (a yummy burger joint). The kids had a wonderful day and wanted to go back for more. I was running out of steam, so we came back home and I took a little nap. I'm glad we made the trip as we only get to do it once a year. I am in awe of how fast this year has flown by and can't believe that Halloween is right around the corner.

Welcome to Oregon Heritage Farm

Family time

Getting her ya-yas out in the big apple


Had a tough day at the office

Lookin at the piggies

Open-air hay maze

Dark hay maze for the more adventurous

Such a cute country store (and K too!)

Which one should we get?

Who's a pretty bird?

Makes you wonder what they're both thinking

Bodi and me

Can we keep him?

This bird loves his job

Eat your hearts out Pirates of the Caribbean

This gal was only 16 and did an amazing job

Some of her handiwork

One view of the farm

Entrance to the Pirate Festival

Flamin Carmen

Trying to knock one down

Were you thinking Goonies too?

Working out the pitching arm

She must have this nasty cold too

Inside a firetruck

Outside the firetruck

Happy fall y'all!