a halloween recap

I've been trying to have a better attitude when it comes to my kitchen and meal planning and I've been looking to my friend Bree for inspiration. If you haven't checked out her blog, do it right now! She's an amazing photographer with a passion for fresh, homemade food. When we briefly lived in the same place, I was amazed by her homemade hummus and lemon bars in particular. I think of her every time I make chicken noodle soup - she taught me to put Matzo balls in - it's such a yummy twist! 

Isaac loves to cook, so I've let him pick a few things to make during our afternoons while the other boys are busy at school and dreaming. One day he chose Bree's pumpkin butter. When it came out so good - and was so easy to make - we made it again and brought it to his preschool class on my co-op day. The kids loved letting their Teddy Grahams go swimming in the pumpkin butter and the teachers were happy to have a little jar to take home. Thanks for the inspiration Bree! We've also sampled your apple butter and sweet and sour chicken recently - keep those easy slow cooker recipes coming! And your caramel sauce? Really? I went through that so fast and never would have tried it without your encouragement. It tastes amazing in a hot cup of tea.

Isaac loves school, which I realize is such a blessing. My kids have always been really excited about school and at a co-op, it's such a nice treat to see them in that environment. Isaac's class has been learning a lot about firefighters, so he was happy to show me some of his firefighting skils. Unlike Finnian at the same age, Mr. Independent Isaac was content to just have me there. He didn't need to sit on my lap or show me everything.  I think he mostly liked the extra attention he got from having his mom there that day.

We headed to Mass. for a Halloween/pumpkin carving party with Mo's siblings and cousins. It's become an annual event and one that we all look forward to. The entries were really fun this year, with many of them actually made by real kids, not just grown-up kids.

The boys loved seeing their cousins - they were all there! And as usual, Colin and Suzi brought their A game. The Angry Birds were a big hit, especially with the kids that had never played the game before. 

We hit the annual Halloween Parade in town too. The kids get to trick-or-treat on Main Street and check out each other's costumes in the daylight. Cowboy Isaac had a homemade costume. I used the same Simplicity pattern that I used for Finnian's 1-year-old cowboy getup. It was such a simple and quick costume and Mr. Texas was thrilled with how it came out. I will never forget the look on his face when he saw himself in the mirror, dressed as a cowboy, for the first time. Magic.

After tossing around a lot of ideas, Finnian finally chose "scary skeleton" as his costume. He's in real school now, so it's time to be scary I suppose! You can't see it in these photos, but I painted a happy skeleton face on his treat bag. Note to self: fabric paint on fleece is not a neat combo.

And Xavier was a monkey who totally understood what to do on Halloween. After watching his brothers, he wobbled to some of the houses and confidently chose a candy from the bowl. He didn't catch on that you could actually eat what was in those shiny little packages, but he sure was a trooper and loved Halloween. Mo and I did our part too to scare the neighbors with our costumes. Grami joined in on the trick-or-treating fun. A good night was had by all!