Halloween with the Girls

66 pieces of candy! Way to go H-Man.

Skeleton Man

Unfortunately Halloween was a bit rained out this year, so we did valet trick-or-treating. I drove the get-away van and Joe schlepped with H in his $14 walmart costume down the driveways to ring the bells. His trick-or-treating skills are still being developed. He thinks that he is supposed to run past the candy givers and roam freely in each house This lasted about 6-7 houses before we gave up and hopped over to Barbara and John's new place to help receive the trick-or-treaters. It was after 8 pm and all of the cute little toddlers in fairy princess and spiderman costumes were long gone. The doorbell would ring about about every 10-15 minutes with gangs of older kids dressed in street clothes - hardly what one considers "costume worthy". "So, what are you fellas dressed as tonight", she asked the kids wearing all black clothes. "Dark Boys"

A few minutes later we headed over to the Kunda's annual party to enjoy cocktails, chili and the Phillies. They always have a fully stocked library of tombstones on the lawn complete with scary music pumping out into the neighborhood.

Pumpkin Spice Play Dough

This is one of the best activities we've ever done. Harvey LOVED every step of the way - from dumping large amounts of powder and spice and watching colors blend on the stove to experimenting with miscellaneous craft supplies. Beads worked really well. Shells and buttons might be good too. Harvey kept wanting to decorate his creations with glue.

Recipe:
5 1/2 cups flour
2 cups salt
8 teaspoons cream of tartar
3/4 cup oil
1 container (1 1/12 oz) pumpkin pie spice
Orange food coloring (2 parts yellow, 1 part red)
4 cups water

Directions:
Mix all of the ingredients together in a large pot. Cook and stir over medium heat until all lumps disappear. Knead the dough on a floured surface until smooth (add flour generously throughout the kneading process). Store in an airtight container.

My favorite part about this is that there is PLENTY of play dough and it doesn't crumble all over the place and leave that nasty smell on your hands. I love our collection of cookie cutters - airplane, space shuttle, fire truck, cars, ambulance and anything else with wheels. Now I am on the hunt for more cutters....

Thanks to H's teacher at the Pennington School for sharing this recipe with us!!

Hot tip of the day - remove crayon from the chalkboard with Goo-Gone. Spray and wipe right off. Sponge off with warm soapy water.

Pie-Baking Contest

It was my first ever! I was so nervous about it too. I agonized whether I should even enter for fear of failure. Ultimately I decided that if I lost, I wouldn't tell anyone and if I won, I could brag about it forever. I entered the two pies in the front here: Peppery Sweet Potato (from our CSA share) and Maple Bourbon Pecan. 2 of the five chefs voted the pecan pie as best tasting and a third judge said it was a close call. There were 3 winners: one in each of the categories - Presentation, Originality and Best-Tasting. Alas, my humble pies did not get the blue ribbons (sniff!), but there's always next year...

HarvFest II

A perfect day: Climbing bales of hay, face painting, pie-baking contest, canning lesson, great food, fresh-made cider and beer, hay rides, western swing band with pedal steel guitar. We missed having Joe! There was only one thing missing. This morning Harvey came up to me while I was preparing pie fillings and said, "Mommy, I miss Joe!"

Harvey's Fourth Birthday!

More Harvfest Pics

Googlevoice Gadget Test

I'm testing this gadget. Give me a call. Joe

Harvey at Harvfest

HOT! HOT! HOT!

It is steaming hot in Philly these days. Everyday I have to move mountains to squeeze in 45 minutes here and there at the pool. It's so easy to find ways to stay in the house another five minutes - a few more dishes, just another email, etc. Half the time I can't find the motivation to get out of the house since Harvey is so completely content playing with puzzles, putting Barney down for his nap, setting up forts for the giraffe and mastering the control knobs on the boom box so he can play his favorite tune "The YOGA Mat Song" and turn up the volume. Of course we are always so happy once we arrive, lather down with the SPF and slip into the oh so refreshing water. Harvey likes to meet his friend Rory at the pool and splash around on their shark and crocodile floaties. They are pictured together here below taking a lunch break at the Philadelphia Zoo. I love that feeling when I first dip into the water on a sticky hot day - kind of like the way a banana must feel being coated in chocolate (except that the chocolate is warm...oh well, it seemed like a good analogy at first.)