Happy Halloween!

 

Halloween morning began with cinnamon roll mummies made by David for breakfast. 

In the late afternoon the girls and I carved pumpkins. It was such a gorgeous day and a perfect way to welcome Halloween night. 

Grace painted her adorable nails herself. It took her three hours but it was definitely time well spent! 

Once the pumpkins were finished, Emma got ready to go trick-or-treating with her friend Lucy.

 Emma's costume is inspired by a character in a game she plays. She knitted the giant hairbow. 

After dropping Emma off, I made dinner (turkey chili as per usual) and then Grace and I went over to the farm to check out their annual pumpkin display. We have had such an illness filled October that, sadly, Grace was not able to hekp carve pumpkins for it. It was such a beautiful night made even more magical by the gorgeous display! 

When we returned home, Grace and I enjoyed our turkey chili and watched Ptactical Magic. From start to finish this might have been one of the best Halloween's ever! xo 

Yesterday In Holliston

 

Spooky cupcakes, gourd soccer, and spectacular jack-o-lanterns carved on a gorgeous October day yesterday! xo

On Halloween

Our Halloween looked a little different this year due to the pandemic but it was still a fun day celebrating together!  There weren't costumes and trick-or-treating this year but we did animate some pumpkins, carve some pumpkins, watch an old school Halloween classic (thanks Disney+!) and eat Halloween candy!  

Amazon's augmented reality pumpkin experience was super cool! 

After they were done animating their drawings, we set up for pumpkin carving in the living room. We have never carved pumpkins in the living room before but we thought it would be fun to do that while Halloween movies were on. 

It's not Halloween without Disney's "Legend of Sleepy Hallow"!

I was busy in the kitchen making salted caramel sauce for caramel apples so I didn't get many pictures of the actual carving, but I am happy to have taken a few. 

The girls Jack-O-Lanterns came out great! These aren't the pumpkins we recently got at the patch. Those were frozen due to our Halloween Eve snow. Thankfully, the sweet, little farm where we have our CSA still had pumpkins when we stopped by on Halloween! 

I know many people feel that so much has been lost due to this pandemic, but I think so much has gained. At least that's the way we have been feeling here (all these months). Sure, we miss seeing our family members (we haven't seen Dave's parents since early February and, with the exception of my mom who we saw for an hour in July, we haven't seen my family since Emma's birthday in late February). We continue to be grateful for the slower pace of life, for the chance to connect with each other and have more time as a family of four than we had had prior to this pandemic. We remain grateful that Mother Earth continues to heal and we hope that more people realize the many blessings they have been given during this time. Sure, holidays, birthdays and celebrations may not look the way they always have, but maybe the point is not that they need to be big and over the top and involve lots and lots of people. Maybe the point is that it's time we scaled down and celebrated with those who we share the space with now so that we can gather with those who mean the most to us when this is over.  In these final two months of 2020, as people are starting to feel weary, and as the winter arrives, I hope that we can all focus on our many blessings and end 2020 feeling more positive than we did throughout. xo 

Pumpkin Carving

 

 The pumpkins are carved and ready to go to the farm for the pumpkin carving contest!

 Each year Indian Head Farm does a beautiful jack-o-lantern display. This year was the first year they have held a pumpkin carving contest and anyone who entered was invited to have their carved pumpkins included too! 

The girls were the only two who entered. 

 After we stood in awe of the gorgeous pumpkins we were invited inside to hear the results of the contest. 

 The girls were both given awards! Each girl received a canvas Indian Head Farm bag (we bought one last year and absolutely LOVE it), Indian Head Farm t-shirts, gourds, candy and a $25 gift card (to share)! We were incredibly blown away by the generosity of the Wheeler family! 

 What a fun way to be part of this display that w have always loved and enjoyed! We told them that we hope the contest continues for years to come! xo