Pumpkin guts

It took until this afternoon to realize that the time left before Halloween was really waning (I have yet to finish sewing Calvin's costume), so we made tonight pumpkin carving night.  There's not a whole lot to say about the occassion;  Calvin was not nearly as fascinated as he was last year, although he did thoroughly enjoy the activity and even, at one point, tried to eat the guts (the kid's reasoning is sound - we've been telling him for weeks now that pumpkins are, in fact, a kind of squash).  And individuality is starting to make a play so that when we wanted to carve the small pumpkin (universally known in our family as Calvin's pumpkin) to look like a cat he made it painfully clear that it should be carved as a funny face.  No problem.  And since our text and our pictures are spacially disparate, we bring you part two of our once yearly Halloween educational series (for part one, a look at Halloween's roots, click here), a look at the origin of pumpkins.  Yes, the pumpkin you just carved probably came from the farm down the road, but from where did we get this odd tradition?  As with Halloween's origins, we have the Irish to thank.  During their festival of Samhain (pronounced SAW in) they believed that the barrier between the dead and living worlds was blurred.  They also believed that light kept the evil spirits at bay and hallowed out their harvested turnips to make lanterns.  Later, after the festival was adopted by the Christians and the tradition brought to America by the tides of immigration, the vegetable of choice became the more easily acquired pumpkin.  The Irish also gave the carved vegetable a separate name - the Jack-o-lantern.  As with our bit last year, this is a major over-simplification of the facts, but to honor the roots of this festive activity we precede our carving artistry with hearty servings of Irish Boiled Dinner.  Maybe next year we'll cap the evening with a jig.

For more pictures visit the new Halloween 2008 photo album.

The next big step

Today we moved Calvin from the toddler day bed into a real twin bed (the same twin bunk bed set, incidentally, that first my father and then I grew up with - pretty cool).  The transition was easy, other than the actual moving of mattresses and bed parts, and we really like the new arrangements because we can all snuggle together to read bedtime stories and sing bedtime songs. Yeah!

When toddlers dress themselves...

Fall Leaves Fall

By Emily Jane Brontë

Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away;
Lengthen night and shorten day;
Every leaf speaks bliss to me
Fluttering from the autumn tree.

I shall smile when wreaths of snow
Blossom where the rose should grow;
I shall sing when night’s decay
Ushers in a drearier day.

The joys of fall

Pumpkin patches, hay rides, hot drinks, stews, cider mills, and doughnuts, just to name a few. Fall is my favorite time of year and my list of favorite things during this season could rival even Julie Andrews. Even this morning's bright white frost, which made me move my morning run indoors to the treadmill, brought a smile to my face. That's what a crisp fall day is all about. So we spent this crisp fall day (which, at nearly 60 degrees, wasn't all that crisp later in the afternoon) taking in the many joys of this rich season. The first three, and more, we covered this morning at Wing Farms (the same place where we picked up all of our free rocks this summer!) with a farm animal visit, a hay ride to the pumpkin patch, and hot cider with fresh doughnut to warm up. Calvin, who is going to be a fall lover like his mom, enjoyed every bit of it, even the rough kisses he received from Champ, who, incidentally, was the cow who taught him to moo this time last year - the only real word he was saying at the time (I double checked my dates on that one - could it really have been only a year ago??? Yes). Both Champ and Calvin are much bigger now, and possibly equally more vocal! We came home from that excursion toting two bundles of corn stalks, a bale of hay, and two pumpkins, all of which now grace our festive front porch.

And after a refreshing afternoon nap (for Calvin, that is, since Jon and I spent that time weeding gardens and spreading 2 cubic yards of mulch) we climbed back in the car and headed to Spicer's Orchard in Fenton to meet with old friends, John and Ashley, and their two boys. Spicer's didn't have a Champ, but they did have a "train ride" (think hay ride, only the wagon looks like a train), a big (and messy) sandbox, and really, really good pies. Since fall is also about warm homes and warm hearts, we ended the evening with great company, great dinner, and one of the aforementioned great pies.  Our friends' oldest son, Noah, is only seven months older than Calvin and the two of them played together wonderfully, even well past their bedtimes, allowing us adults to share some stories, some laughs, and some wine before calling it a night.  Yes, fall is one of my favorite things.