janice's mash-up

happy halloween!

What a full day at work and home! I must say that I just love the pure joy of little ones dressed up in their costumes...so excited! The princesses, storm troopers, pumpkins and pirates at work today and at our door this evening - so so cute. A little different than this eleven year old zombie that left the house this morning ready for his dance at school...

This morning also started off with some ghost toast and goolish black grapes and halloween bento lunches packed in backpacks.

    
I love giving out little treats to friends and neighboours for Halloween. Some little ones got these cute bats with ghost marshmallows in them and the older girls got these cute bags with Halloween nail polish. Both treat bag kits were from here.

    
I cut up the black caramels last night and took some to work today along with some of my special popcorn and pretzel hugs. All yum. Adults need treats too ;)

   
And some friends and neighbours got some fun Halloween smores kits...

I saw this idea on pinterest in the summer and have been waiting for Halloween to make these little kits!

Late this afternoon the boys carved some pumpkins, had mummy dogs for dinner and then Colin was off for his last year of trick or treating with a big group of friends from school.

   

Adam helped me man the door at home and got the fog machine going and creepy doorbell set up. The neighbourhood kids all talk about THAT doorbell!

It was a cold and blustery night and we ended our Hallowe'en with some ghostly hot chocolate.

Happy Hallowe'en!

weekend wrap-up

Saturday brought hockey, soccer, pumpkins and a couple of parties thrown in. Adam had a great game and got an "A" to wear on his jerseys again this year.

And then we zipped over to watch Colin's first cup game while Adam was at a hockey party. Colin was playing defense but scored the second goal. It was a great play with a chest bump followed by a big lobbing kick that went over the goalie's head. Colin's not a huge goal-scorer so he was very excited and Neil and I were so glad to both be there.

After some showers the boys and I headed down the street to the Village Garden and the boys each chose a pumpkin to carve for Halloween. Adam had to shoot a roll of black and white film for his photography class so he got some great shots at the patch.

And then we had to check on the mushroom colony on the way home...

and then Saturday evening I was off to a party to celebrate a friend's 50th birthday.

Sunday brought homework, zombifying some old clothes for Colin's Hallowe'en costume and making some treats. Hannah came over and she made some black caramels with Colin and I. I found the recipe here awhile ago and bookmarked it. Loved the idea for Hallowe'en and since I've never made caramels before, it was another "learn something new" opportunity!

Next we made some buttercream frosting and decorated some monster cupcakes. Hannah and Colin have mad piping skills!

  

This evening I am busy with some more treats and Colin and I shredded and sprayed his clothes and tested out some make up for his zombie look for his dance tomorrow. Bring on Hallowe'en!

the pumpkin patch

This time of year involves a few trips to the pumpkin patch. I have already been twice to scoop up some prized unique pumpkins but my favourite trip is always with the boys. We made it to the patch down the street late Saturday afternoon. We were the only ones there which is a very different experience than the patches we used to visit when the boys were younger!

Colin needed a pumpkin to scoop out for a school project on Monday and Adam wanted to find a perfect one to carve for a project he had in mind and to snap some photos for his photography class. I just savoured the moment and went over in my head the many years of visiting pumpkin patches...some trips were a little bit bumpy but they are all still part of what we call a tradition, and I love that.

This is this week's The Simple Things photo.

Check out other "simple things" photographs on Rebecca's blog.

 

 

halloween is creeping up

Some signs that Hallowe'en is creeping up on us...

Adam had a Hallowe'en dance at school and really went all out with his costume ;) He had a great time though.

The decorations are finally coming out...

I'm scaling back on my end a bit and we'll see what the boys add to the mix. I've got some little treats to put together this weekend and I'm sure there'll be some baking involved too. The boys and I realized this afternoon that we haven't made a pumpkin patch trip together yet. We might have to brave the mud this weekend!

weekend wrap-up

Last week was crazy busy. This weekend was quiet. Much needed! I am still recovering from staying up til 3am on Thursday night putting a powerpoint presentation together and getting up at 7am to head out to a conference. I used to be able to bounce back from a night like that but not anymore! I have been in a haze all weekend.

When I got home Friday, I took the boys out for an ice cream treat which was just as much for me as for them! As we drove back into our neighbourhood, I just had to stop and take some photos of the mushroom city that is rapidly developing...I'm estimating about 50 of these amazing things now!

Soon after I took these photos, I was in bed, recovering from a full but rewarding week. Saturday brought soccer and hockey games. No photos...which tells you how I was feeling!

Friday was Caramel Apple Day and I had full intentions having making caramel apples with the boys Friday night but that just didn't happen so this weekend turned into caramel apple weekend and we made some Sunday afternoon. I used a bag of Kraft Premium Caramel Bits which I had picked up at Target las week...made these so easy! Everyone kind of did their own thing...Neil had his plain, I had mine with milk chocolate and toasted almonds, Colin did just chocolate webbing to start but then added some almonds and Adam covered his caramel with milk chocolate and then drizzled on white chocolate. We had an extra one which we added chocolate and sprinkles too and Colin's friend Jonah will probably have that when he is over this evening!

Sunday was a gorgeous day and it was good to get outside for a walk with a friend. I am at peace with a big decision I had to make and ready to start a new week fresh and rested!

for the love of tea

Me and hot drinks haven't always been friends. I've always enjoyed a hot chocolate on a cold day and enjoy a chai tea latte or london fog as a treat, but drinking tea at any old time hasn't always worked for me as hot drinks tend to make me feel a little drowsy. I have re-discovered tea this summer and fall though and what a difference the kind of tea I have been drinking has made. 

This week I have been drinking a lot of a throat-soothing tea and I received a package containing pumpkin chai tea in the mail. Yum. What comfort it is.

This is this week's The Simple Things photo.

Check out other "simple things" photographs on Rebecca's blog.

 

 

halloween projects

Hallowe'en has been in the background of my brain for a few weeks now. When the boys were younger, it would have been much further forward by this time! Both boys are kind of noncommital as to whether they want costumes this year and both are going to their school dances which seems to be much more of a concern now than costumes and candy. Oh my, how times change.

This has been a particularly busy week for me with a friend's book launch, two university presentations and two pro-d workshops for teachers on Friday to prepare for so there is still nothing Halloweenish up in or around our home yet. Maybe this weekend.

When I had friends over a couple of weekends ago, I did get a couple little Hallowe'en projects done. We all made these fun dangly necklaces...

And I made some gift tags...

And put together this year's Hallowe'en mini-album. It is a 6x6 accordian book made using the My Mind's Eye Blackbird line of paper. I cut the 12x12 double-sided scrapbook papers in half and then folded those 6x12 pieces in half. I glued 5 of these pieces together, back to back, to create the accordian pages for the inside of the book.

We created the covers using cereal boxes. We cut two 6x6 pieces of cardboard, covered one side with a glue stick and pressed it onto a piece of scrapbook paper (about 9x9 in size) so that there is an even border all the way around. When the glue has dried, we trimmed off the corners of the pieces of paper and then folded the paper borders over the cardboard edge and glued those borders down to the cardboard. The first and last accordian pages can then be glued with double-sided tape to each cover. Ta-da! Embellish cover and hope that there are some photos of the boys this Hallowe'en to go in the album!

This might be it this year as far as Hallowe'en projects go but I do have some new treats that I want to give a go!

weekend wrap-up

It was a glorious crisp sunny fall weekend.

Perfect for flying through the air at soccer...

And for the life lessons in a hockey game...

Time outside to ride bikes.

Lot of homework all around.

More apple desserts.

Beautiful fall colours while out on a walk/longboard with Colin.

And a birthday dinner for Grandpa.

The end.

the return of the mushrooms

For the last few years, these amanita mushrooms have popped up this time of year in our neighbourhood. It's fascinating to watch them multiply and to evolve over their lifespan. The closely domed top slowly opens up all way to expose the gills and release the spores.

Twice on Saturday, I pulled over to the side of the road for a closer look - with Colin after soccer and with Adam after hockey. We see them for such a short time once a year and there are always lots of oohs and aahs and questions. I hope the boys never lose that sense of wonder that is so a part of who they are.

This is this week's The Simple Things photo.

Check out other "simple things" photographs on Rebecca's blog.

pumpkin scones and muffins

I had some pumpkin left from Monday's pumpkin pie, so yesterday afternoon I made some pumpkin scones. They disappeared very quickly...two of Colin's friends longboarded over to have a try too. Adam coveted his and saved his for breakfast this morning. I used this recipe that is a replication of the Starbucks pumpkin scones.

Yum. We'll be making these again.

Today, I used up the pumpkin making this recipe for pumpkin cream cheese muffins. A delish afterschool snack.

These were so good too. I love seasonal baking.