Halloween 2016

The kiddo and I had a pretty successful October this year. Early in the month, he lost his very first tooth. He'd been nervous about it falling out, so I put out a plea on Facebook for toothless pictures of his friends. That post blew up! It was so great to see everyone's responses and encouragement. His cousins even recorded videos telling him that losing teeth was no big deal, not scary at all. <3 I couldn't get a shot of him with his gap showing, so we did a video instead.

Showing off!

The tooth!

Mid-month, we went on the annual AuSM trolley ride to the pumpkin patch, for the second year in a row. No pictures on the trolley this time, but we did take a few with the pumpkins. At first he thought a short, wide one was his favorite, but later abandoned it for one that was a little taller. And easier to carve. (We carved it after we got home, but forgot to take pictures and it got moldy before the big day anyway, so it was tossed.) It was still a good time! And he got a balloon puppy!

Cheese!

On my head!

New pumpkin, and my puppy!

Next bit of kid-related excitement was the fall fundraiser at school, which was a fun run. It was really just a small oval track, with half of the first grade and all of the second grade at his school. He "ran" with his para and a new favorite classmate. They did about 21 laps, which I was extremely impressed with. He kept going for the whole hour! Of course I was there for a hug and a high 5 as needed, each lap. ;)

My little ninja turtle

Last but not least, Halloween itself. I carved a second pumpkin, using our "kids" pattern book. I think the little dude liked it. He certainly liked playing with the rest of the plastic eyes that came in the kit. Of course the squirrels ate it almost immediately.

boo!

His class had a fall party the Friday before, which I attended with him, but which was mostly just being herded around classroom-to-classroom for activities he wasn't particularly interested in. Can't win them all, I guess. I didn't take pictures of that.Then on the day of, he wore his new Pikachu hoodie to school and loved it. We went trick or treating at the local zoo's members-only party, all three of us, which was substantially successful. He said his trick or treats, walked the entire path, and didn't melt down when he became overstimulated. We were in and out in just over an hour, got a happy meal on the way home, and spent the rest of the night chilling out and pretending not to be home. We don't actually get trick or treaters, aside from maybe a handful of teenagers after 8 pm, so we just skipped it this year.

Cheese!

What's going on over there?

My pikachu!

I love my pikachu!

That's kind of it for October. We had a blast. Ready to move on to the next holiday.

Another year gone by

Hello, world. Thought I might go back to updating my blog for the month of November, at least.

I've been busy, but mostly not with bloggable stuff, unfortunately. My craft room is now Dan's home office, and his former space is a sensory room for Sam. My desk moved to our (ridiculously large, don't get me wrong) master bedroom and I am still in the process of getting it organized.

One thing I have been trying to do more of since school started is cook at home. I've made my Rotisserie Chicken a few times, as well as my favorite Pork Roast, and a few others that I am probably forgetting. Tonight's docket is Fajitas. Later in the week I have loose plans for Chicken Stroganoff, but that may or may not happen. I also have a couple of newer crock pot recipes that I have never blogged about, so those will be on my list the next time I make them.

I also did a few small batches of canning over the summer. It was nowhere near as crazy as the summer of 2014 where I canned several times a week, all summer. This year, I made some strawberry jam, rhubarb syrup, bread and butter pickles, garlicky dill pickles (I made spears though), and a couple of batches of applesauce. (My applesauce recipe contains nothing but apples, and if I make another batch soon, I will try to blog about it.) In the spring I made a couple of citrus curds, and plan to make a few more nearer to the holidays. My goal has been to give away as much as possible as soon as possible after processing. I have a few more pickles on hand than necessary, though. I wish I had done some diced tomatoes, since we really do use them up throughout the year. (Literally everything else I preserve is consumed by no one in our household except me. Maybe Dan will have a pickle. Maybe.)

Everything I have left: 1 half-pint jam, 2 half-pints syrup, 2 pints applesauce, 4 pints pickles