Halloween Window Shopping

I love to go and see what the retailers have out for Halloween. Some years there are very clever displays. The florist around here are creative, but many of the other stores were not so Halloweenie. However, here are a few of the fun things I found. The strawberries ghosts are from an upscale chocolate store. They seemed to have dipped them in white chocolate, trailed it out (or maybe even painted it) before it hardened. The eyes and mouths are made of bits of regular chocolate painted on. The items with them are slices of strawberry and marshmallow with chocolate drizzled all over them. I am hoping to have time to do some of these, but I doubt that it will actually happen. Having here on my blog might remind me for next year.

The striped bowl and spider towels were at Crate & Barrel. I thought it was a lot of fun. I have a friend with a totally black and white kitchen. I thought of here when I saw those. I just wanted to hold them and make cookies while stirring with and orange spatula. It feels like "Cat in the Hat" meets Martha Stewart to me.

The place settings are easier to find. I first saw a picture of them in some flyer I got. I cut it out as I thought it would make a fun set of quilt squares. Then I saw these at Sur La Table. I REALLY want these. Of course, with my fetish for dishes, I don't really need them, but when were need and desire companions? I may have to sneak over to the store on November 1 to see if there are any left. That store has great sales. I also saw just the mugs at Border's bookstore. I might have to check there as well.

I am still looking for the link from last year where someone made a "Day of the Dead" table runner. I did a ton of Google searches, but to no avail.

We are off to do yet another remake of Ellie's costume. First she was Ester from the 1930's. It was a wonderful costume, but not her favorite. I told her I thought it would net a lot of candy, being nostalgic for many people. Next it was a scary "Fairy Eater" monster with long, hideous fingers and red nails, complete with a horned skeleton face. Friday at the school party she was the business fairy. I will post a photo of that soon. It was kind of fun. She became the "stocks and bonds" fairy by the end of the night. Now she wants another kind of fairy, one with shocking lime green and hot pink, complete with feather boas.

If You Don't Like the Weather, Wiat a Minute...

If you follow my blog, you would have seen that last Saturday's race was beautiful. It was mid 70's and clear blue skies. A slight breeze wafted through the park from time to time, just enough to create a pleasant ride. Last Sunday's race was quite a contrast. We woke to 23 degree weather with damp, gray skies. We had expected to find snow, but there was only a dusting up in the mountains. Our race was at 9 a.m. in Evergreen, a nice mountain town about 45 minutes away. I called the grocery store there to inquire about the weather. It seemed their night was more mild than ours had been. As we drove the snow began to fly. The wind wanted to keep pace and began its own show. We arrived early. Some of our friends arrived a bit later, their bikes caked in ice from the sleet that had taken hold of Denver. There they were, minutes before the race, hacking the ice off with tools. One person was clever enough to use deicer. My kids were excited, and a bit nervous. Racing is cold weather with snow and ice is a whole new ball game. They kept bundled until it was time to start. Early on Ellie's leg warmer crept down to her ankle, but she did not have a way to pull it up without loosing time. Ethan fell a few times, but kept going. I was proud of him for that. Each season seems to have a theme for each of my children. For Ethan, it is finding his limits. At the Brecktober race he felt and dropped out of the race once he got to where we were. But end of the race he already felt better and had wished that he had kept going. This happened again at another race. I am sure this time it was a battle to decide - keep racing, or stop. Of course I want him to stop when he needs to, but I think it is also important to know that you can push through some hard things, some levels of pain. By the end of the race they were both happy to be done, but they were also both very charged. Ellie came in second place. Ethan got 8th. I don't know if they really "enjoy" racing in such cold weather, but I do know that they love it. It makes them feel strong, invincible. What a feeling that is! Another junior team setup a two tents side by side and cooked pancakes, bacon and hot cocoa for anyone who wanted it. The place was crowded with happy junior racers and the smell of warm maple syrup. They hope tomorrows race will be a cold one, too.

Pumpkin Carving Party 2007

Wednesday was a ton of fun. We had our potluck and pumpkin carving party. We had fewer people than we expected, but it was still a full house. Some could not make it simply because of so much that needed to be done on a school night. Others were consumed with the Rockies game. We didn't mind. We ate, we carved and we even did a bit of silly lipsinking. You can see a photo of Ethan and Ari "singing" a girly love song, " Please don't leave me all by myself..." (by Moby 18). Ethan, ever the lover of fireworks, coated the inside of his pumpkin with powder from some old fireworks. In another picture here you can see when he lit it up. It was a bit of a surprise, but everyone loved it! Ellie carved two pumpkins, but was too shy to let me take close up photos of them. We are lucky to have friends who want to come and share our silly fun!

Have a little Mud, Some Pine Needles and a Bridge Without Handrails and you have a fun Race

We all have our own ideas of fun. That idea is a bit different for those who race cyclocross. It is a sport that kicks your butt. Saturday's race was at a park by Interlocken. Driving up to it, it looked innocent enough. The course had a sort of hidden underbite, if you will. The start and much of the course was on lovely, squishy almost moss like turf. Great if you are playing soccer, but tough to ride on. This gave way to a small, muddy trickle of a stream that the kids had to cross. The sun was shining and the hills were wet with frost. The muck from the little river made its way up the steep embankment. By the end of the race kids were falling and sliding their way up the hill. No one kid could ride it. This gave way to a scenic stand of evergreen trees which laid out a carpet, about an 1" or 2" thick with pine needles. Some of those needles wanted to tag along and stayed on the bikes. Up and down a few more hills, over a thin strip of a bridge without handrails that crossed over the expanse of a concrete lined ditch. Cyclists worried that they might fall of the side due to wet, slick tires. Thankfully, it was only a threat, no actual falls. At the end of the race they declared it a lot of fun - a cyclist romp in the mud! Ellie came in second and Ethan got 8th. Ellie wished for a podium and a metal, but since it is a series, that did not happen. We will have to see how it all washes out at the end.

Pumpkin Carving Party Invitations

For years now we have hosted a potluck and pumpkin carving party. It is a lot of fun. Originally it was a soup and bread potluck. I made unusual squash or pumpkin based soup and make a fun bread. I found during the last few years that I needed to expand what people could bring. I think this will be our 7th year doing our party. The photo here shows some of the invitations I made. The main image is from scrapbooking paper by Rusty Pickle. The images are artsy and wonderful. I wish you could see them better. I attached a silk leave and two silk petals to the corner. The solid shape are those new double sided stickers that are then covered with glitter. I went a bit nuts with them. The thing about me is that you can always tell when I get a new craft "toy." I like the way the cards came out, though they are not my best composition ever. The inside sports a skeleton with a jagged knife. I love the non-cutesy feel of the cards. Tomorrow we set up the house. We will cover all of the tables with tacky cheap, plastic table clothes, set out large bowls for pumpkin guts and arrange our collection of carving tools. Ethan will put together a disc of music. Ellie will muse over the final tweaking of the decorations. By the time our heads hit the pillows we will have a party waiting in the wings. Carve On!

The Tom Danielson Awards Ceremony

Ellie had eagerly awaited Friday night. She loves it when she gets to meet celebrities. Tom Danielson is a big one is the world of cycling. The ceremony was wonderful. Basil Docs, a local pizza place that sponsored the series brought in 42 large pizzas and they were gone in under 30 minutes. It was sort of gourmet and very tasty. The flavors had a nice subtle blend to them. My cookies were also a hit. One team is a group of boys go to a boarding school. Apparently they don't get cookies often. Their first time though they were each very thoughtful about which one to take. Later, one by one, they came by and said, "'xcuse' me , mama. Do you think everyone has had a chance to have a cookie?" "Yes." I replied. "Do you want more?" (after a bit of hesitation) "How many different kinds did you make?" I picked out the best of each of the flavors and handed them out in due course. I think all of those boys got a nice number. The favorites turned out to be the ones with chunks of Reese Peanut Butter Cup in them. Our team won many awards. Ellie was happy to receive her metal and thrilled to accept the Junior Woman 10-12 Team award as well. Our team got so many awards that the trophy maker called the organizers to make sure it was not a typo. It was gratifying to see so much support for Junior Cycling in Colorado.

Queen of Cookies

We have a special awards ceremony tomorrow night. I offered to help. One of my duties is acting as the Queen of Cookies. In the last few days the kids and I have made 15 dozen chocolate chip, 2 dozen oatmeal raisin, 2 dozen macadamia nut with white chocolate chip, and 5 dozen peanut butter cookies. We have also made three pans of brownies. My family ate some, note realizing that they were for the event, so I remade some of them. It was nice to be home long enough to make them. One of the evenings a neighbor from many doors down stopped by. Apparently my cookies could be smelled at the end of the block. It has been fun to make them. It has been hard not to eat them.