No Regrets

I tacked a few additional kilometres on my morning runs the last couple of days. I will admit that the Green Pumpkin herself indulged in one too many Tootsie Rolls on Halloween night. It felt so good to bag up all that candy at the end of the evening. I will send it to work with my husband tomorrow and the temptations will be gone (:

The Great Green Pumpkin was a huge hit in our home. I was nervous the boys would be feeling some regret in relinquishing their entire booty. The truth is, I let them have their fill just following trick-or-treating and I think they may have realized they'd had enough sicky sweetness. The allure and mystery of the Green Pumpkin was more enticing to them then a few dozen chocolate bars! I keep a small suitcase of treasures and trinkets for last minute gifts...etc. My husband refers to it as my "stash". In exchange for all those treats, the Green Pumpkin left behind a very teeny weeny Lego set, a dinky toy and a few thrifted hockey cards. I was initially worried they had unrealistic expectations, but it turns out I underestimated the allure of a $2 dinky toy! There were no regrets and no mention of treats from either of them!

So with the month of November stretched out before us, I'm in the mood to snuggle up with a knitting project. We've got the wood stove running full force these days and I love to spend the evenings lounging on the couch reading or knitting. Since it looked so great on Soulemama, I've decided to tackle an Annabel cardigan for myself. I have all my skeins dyed, but I'm still waiting for them to dry out! I pulled the last of my goldrenrod blooms from the freezer for this dye project. I regret not collecting more in late August, as I've fallen in love with this beautiful shade of yellow. In fact, I just completed a little goldenrod sweater vest for Muffy. He proudly wore his "Mommy Love Vest" to school today....melt my heart (:




We are all enjoying the cleansing effect of this crisp fall air! Thanks to the Green Pumpkin, we are back to our healthy habits.

It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown

I'm just winding down after a fun-filled Halloween evening. Since trick-or-treaters rarely brave our 800 foot driveway, we usually take the boys out as a family. It's actually a great way to catch up on some visiting with neighbours. It's always a fun event in our little community.

What I love most about Halloween is the dressing up, of course! It's a great excuse to make some fun costumes that the boys can enjoy all year long in their imaginative play. Not surprisingly, my bug lover wanted to be a spider this year, and his brother enthusiastically joined in. This was a super fun costume to put together and was also quite easy and inexpensive. The sewing was pretty rough and basic and I didn't even bother hemming the fleece head piece.

I used glow in the dark paint left over from last year's skeleton costume to add some fun to the outfit. The spider legs are made from men's dress socks, stuffed with batting. The little "hood" was made using a Spiderman PJ hood as a template. I think I've used this template for just about everything as it is so versatile and easy (space helmet, knight helmet, skeleton head, Ironman hood, Buzz Lightyear helmet.....etc). I love the googly eyes! Most spiders have eight eyes, dear Muffy tells me. We have to be scientifically accurate around here!

It is always shocking to me how much candy two small boys can collect from visiting less than a dozen homes! As soon as Chi-Chi and Muffy walked in the door, the loot bags were emptied and the tally was taken. As a bit of a last minute decision, I actually decided to try out the "Green Pumpkin" on my boys. They were instructed to leave any unwanted treats on their bedroom doors for the Great Green Pumpkin who would be visiting tonight. The Green Pumpkin exchanges the candy for little surprises. Somewhere in there I mumbled the words, "The more you give, the more you get". Well, I regret that statement just a little! Before I knew it, both boys had decided to give every single piece of remaining candy to the Great Green Pumpkin. I didn't really expect them to give it ALL away. I was really hoping they would give up about two thirds while the remainder would be handed out as dessert treats this week. Now I'm feeling a bit pressured to come up with something slightly impressive from my "stash" of trinkets and goodies. I'm not sure what I will pull together...but I better figure out something very soon as the clock reads 11pm (: As Chi-Chi was falling asleep, he told me he really didn't want all that much candy anyway. I'm sure this might have something to do with the belly ache he most certainly went to bed with!

Have you ever had a visit from the Green Pumpkin or the Candy Fairy? How well did this go over in your house?