Halloween (very clever title, I know)

If you have been reading for a while you know that I live in a small rural town in northern Vermont.
If you have been watching the weather you know that 3 days ago we got some snow and that it's darned cold up here right now. However, we in the Northeast Kingdom are no stranger to bad weather and no amount of snow or cold is going to deter this town from celebrating Halloween.
One of my favorite things about living here is that we have traditions, certain things that bring us all together like a family. The stars and stripes, homecoming, a genuine 100 year old football rivalry, snowflake festival, relay for life, and many others. Halloween is no exception. The whole town does it's best to get into the spirit, businesses give out candy and stay open late. All the houses in the village decorate and everyone (adults and children alike) dress up and get into the holiday spirit.

Autumn would not let me get pictures of her Cleopatra costume, apparently she is "too old" for that...

This year started out like all the others, searching for costumes, carving pumpkins, getting the yard decorated. On Halloween though, 2 big things changed: Autumn went out trick or treating for the first time with just her friends and the Hubbs took Lili without me. I stayed behind to do candy duty this year (we went through 19 bags!). I was so nervous about letting Autumn go alone, it was one of those moments where I caught a glimpse of my future, her learning to drive and going out on a date, and I wasn't sure I liked it.

The tanning salon and mattress shop put up a little haunted house for the little kids

The graveyard at our house, those lights are actually orange...

This growing up things is getting harder everyday, when did your kids first start doing things on their own? is it normal to feel so lost?

Zombie Disco Queen meets Kangaroo

My Hungry Zombie Disco Queen chasing the Kangaroo baby.

The walk up to the house, nice graveyard of luminarias, the other side of the drive was lined with luminarias too but they didn't photograph well.

The porch was a shaded light, caution tape, a purple lighted spiderweb and a stretchy web. After trick or treating in the snow we came back and ate awesome stew (thanks to the crock pot), and sat on the porch to give out candy. Holy COLD. It was 22 degrees and snowing the whole time we were out. Winter is definitely coming to Lyndonville.

Here's a lights on pic of the porch, it was pretty spooky once the lights were off, simple but effective, the little kids were a little freaked out to come up and get their candy. My feet hurt from being on them all day.

Happy Halloween Everyone, hope it was a spooky good time for everyone!

More Party Pics

Finished cake pops on display with the crock pot of the most delicious chili I have made in a long time. I LOVE my new crock pot. I have never owned one and now that I do cooking around this house will never be the same. I already have plans for stew this week and many homemade soups and things as it gets colder. Comfort food, mmmmmmmm.

Autumn making the cupcake toppers to match the glass jars we decorated above. This is her 1st set of toppers all by herself! She even used her own paper and supplies.

Her cutie toppers on the cupcakes she and her friends decorated, so adorable... and they were delicious too!

Broomstick bread sticks to dunk in the chili and mini mummy dogs, the kids added mustard eyes after this photo was taken, they were scrumptious and totally cute.

I love this picture when Autumn got her hand stuck in the pumpkin they were carving for the contest. I thought I was going to have to cut her out! Her costume isn't really visible here, I will post pics of all the costumes after Halloween...

Remember this mess? I finally have the party photos edited, so here goes!




The cake balls that I rolled the night before cooled in the refrigerator overnight, on party day (about 2 hours before we were ready) I took them out and prepared some of the melting chocolate in the microwave. I dipped the lollipop sticks in the chocolate and then stuck them in the cake calls about 1/2 way, then put them back in the refrigerator to let that sit. The chocolate acts like glue to keep the cake balls firmly on the lollipop stick during the dunking process (I learned this the hard way after losing about 5 to the process).





When we cook and bake the counters get really messy, I tried (to no avail) to corral things in baskets during the process but eventually it all spilled out. I think I may have just given away the secret to my light and flaky pie crust (it's the box on top of the bread), hee hee.



The chopsticks work great for stirring the chocolate without loosing to much to the spoon. I used a small open bowl and used the chopsticks to fill in any areas that didn't cover by drizzling on top. I have seen a lot of tutorials on cake balls and let me tell you, it is HARD. They make it look easy, but they are lying to you. The mixture I made was no good, and doing this for the first time the day before the party was a bad idea. I know I will make more because they were freaking great, but I have learned a few things along the way:

1. Use an entire cake and an entire container of premade frosting. Don't try to use 1/2 a cake and guestimate the amount of frosting you need.

2. Make the balls 2 days before you need them, dip them the day before and store in a cool place.

3. Do not use candy melts, they suck. Use white chocolate and dye it with food coloring (NOT LIQUID FOOD COLORING, use Wilton's)

4. PATIENCE is your best friend, along with lots of coffee and a lack of 2 year olds running amok.

Here is the early stages of the outdoor area, we decided that with the wind and snow that the outdoor area was not going to work about half way through the day. Yes, you heard right we had snow... just a flurry mind you but it was enough to be freezing outside. We ended up moving the outdoor activities to the garage, and the eating and games inside to the dining room and kitchen.

Still he tombstones were so cute and only $1.00 at the store! Can't beat a spooky bargain :)

Hurray for Friday on Thursday! We have a busy, busy day tomorrow so I took the day off work. Long weekends are the best. Autumn has planned a Halloween party for tomorrow night, although she invited more than 20 people I think the busy season combined with ALMOST snow weather has dwindled the brave partiers down to manageable number (hopefully around 10). In preparation for this grand event we have done a lot of planning, but the bulk of the work will be done tomorrow. Here's the schedule right now (subject to change at any second):




Wake up around 7ish


Go to get coffee


Pick up the pop tent (10 x 10 tent we are borrowing for the event)


Pick up mexicorn and hamburger for the chili


go home and start the chili in the crock pot


set up tent


*go to Dr office for both kid's flu shots at 11 sharp!


Go home, pick up more coffee


Nap for Lili


Autumn out to decorate the yard, set up the luminaries and other spooky things


Decorate these puppies:
Those are the beginnings of Cake Pops if you couldn't tell. Yes it's after midnight, yes I am the crazy mom who bakes cake after her kids go to sleep at 10 pm and then wait for it to cool so I can create a ton of cake balls because they have to refrigerate for the night before they can be decorated. I know, it's nuts, especially when the schedule starts at 7... but someday, when my kids are 30ish they may actually appreciate all the hard work I put into making everything awesome for their special days.
After the cake balls are decorated (yes I will remember to take pictures for you :) the day is pretty much open, maybe I will take a nap too! I LOVE naps. I do have to check my work email and I have a few swaps to get out, check the snail mail and of course laundry, dishes and grocery shopping, but I can usually get all that into about an hour if I'm careful.
I got this beauty from Autumn today, I love pottery, and I love it when she gets to make things that we can actually use. This little bud vase she made is so cute and the colors and textures make me think of the sea. Perfect in the gloom of winter, which is quick approaching. There was snow on the hill at work today and I have a feeling we will be getting it in the valley any day. Hurray for skiing, snowboarding, snowmen and ice skating! Poo to shoveling the driveway :(

And the winner is

New halloween mini kit to win! So I held a drawing on my blog a month ago and the winner never contacted me with her information! So here it is the halloween mini book kit available to win. How will I give it away? I 'm taking suggestions! Leave a comment with your suggestion and if I pick your method you will get a gift too (winter themed).

The back of the massive package:

A few papers:

All packeged up!

A few of the embellies from the kit