Fall Festivities

Ah yes, the Halloween season is again upon us. Do I need to remind you how I detest Halloween? And how having a child with food allergies has not helped matters? I mean please, peanut butter cups were one of the only redeeming qualities Halloween had to offer!

I will admit that I look forward to roasting pumpkin seeds, but the process of cleaning them off... don't get me started!

Friday night, for Family Night, we gussied up a couple of pumpkins, potato head style. My mom gave the kids these kits last year and it was a brilliant choice. Harper clearly loved revisiting her witch kit.


Michael was pretty excited about things as well. As the pirate pieces fell into place he kept exclaiming, "Mah punkeen bootifoo!" (My pumpkin's beautiful!)


Then we made him go to bed and he cried. Sadly every night can't have a happy ending.

Harper, on the other hand, got to stay up a bit later and "help" me make potato soup. She worked on peeling potatoes. She'd never peeled potatoes before. I don't know if you have ever peeled potatoes with a five-year-old, but it is quite a task. I use little baby red potatoes for soup so peeling is probably more difficult.

Maybe I should have started her on carrots.


Harper peeled potatoes at the rate of about one every ten minutes. It. Was. Agonizing. But you can't learn without doing it, right? And all the other tasks involved chopping things with very sharp knives and I wasn't eager to visit the ER.

Harper sticks her tongue out when she concentrates.

Even though things went along a little more slowly than normal I really enjoyed my kitchen time with Harper. She was just so happy to be able to help and she was cracking me up with the things she was saying. At one point she commented, "This (peeling potatoes) is a great thing to do while you're just hanging out and chatting." She also said something about the potato skins being students and she was like the bus driver taking them to school. She followed that comment by reminding me that she has a really big imagination.

Today Harper helped me make a loaf of bread to go with the soup and Michael helped me make brownies. Maybe the two of them will open a restaurant one day!