This Halloween Haylee decided she was going to be a little devil.  When I asked her how come she wanted to be a little devil she said because mom, I am an angel every day and have to be something different for Halloween.  The things 8 year old’s think of.

When she was little I always worried about how she would handle being around so many other kids with a small hand due to Amniotic Band Syndrome.  But I have learned if you don’t make a issue out of it then Haylee does not make an issue out of it.

As you can see in the picture Haylee had a long weekend of Trick-or-Treating.  Friday night we were invited by the Shriners to an awesome Halloween Party.  They had tons of great games stations and Haylee just had an amazing time. It was nice that she got to talk to some of the different Shriner members and her favorite part was talking with a Shriner named Doug.

On Saturday we went to a few local friends houses then off to Hy-vee Halloween maze that had 35 different businesses handing out candy, sodas, ice cream, hotdogs, and tons of other great stuff.  Haylee had a great time and there were tons of people there.  After that we headed to Gateway mall to do some trick-or-treating.  Last year we went and Haylee came home with tons of candy.  This year we went and Haylee said she was ready to go after walking by about 15 stores and only 1/3 of those stores were handing out candy.  So we left and went off to Parkers for some good BBQ food.  Haylee’s Daddy loves BBQ and so Haylee and I decided to treat him for Halloween night.

On observation I did notice is how well Haylee adjusted to holding the trick-or-treat bag with her little hand and taking candy with her big hand.  The little things that she figures out to make things work.

photo credit: jsgphoto

Ok,  every one knows about the Easter Bunny, Old Saint Nick, even the tooth fairy, but what about the Great Pumpkin?  There is only one who is rumored to have even seen the great pumpkin and he has not other witnesses to validate his story.  So, does the Great Pumpkin Really exist?

We need to take care of this issue once and for all.  This story began with Charles Schultz and a young boy by the name of Linus, but that story took off and now kids just want to know the the real true story.

Now Linus claims that the Great Pumpkin will  visit every pumpkin patch all around the world.  He will be visible to the one that he believes is the best pumpkin patch.  And the children that are waiting for the Great Pumpkin at that patch will get candy and treats for their efforts.

Well now lets think about this, kids don’t grow pumpkins do they?  Now the kids may plant the seeds but most of the maintenance and labor is done by the parents or adults.  So why are the kids getting all the good stuff?

Now the Great Pumpkin was created by Peanuts Creator Charles Schultz. And Linus Van Pelt is one of his most memorable characters.Now Linus tries to convince his friends that they all should wait in the scary pumpkin patch instead of going trick-or-treating.

Now all the kids blow Linus off except for Charlie Brown’s sister Sally. Sally is in love with Linus and she follows him year after year and never sees the Great Pumpkin.  Pretty soon she is upset because she does not ever have any candy.  HMMMM, wonder if her parents know what she is doing every Halloween?

Now some parents have taken The Great Pumpkin story and made their own traditions out of it.  Such as, children who donate part of their candy will get a friendly visit from the great pumpkin, who will take their candy and leave in its place money or toys. Our children never eat all their candy anyways and it becomes a win, win situation.

Maybe this fall is when the Great Pumpkin will make his appearance at your pumpkin patch.  Who Knows?

photo credit: unfoldedorigami

Have you ever just given your child a pumpkin and let their imagination run wild? They can do amazing things with a pumpkin if you sit back and let thier imagination work.

The small pumpkins are just too cute.  You will normally find them in the produce department and often they look more like a fall decoration then anything else.

Next time you are at the store pick up a couple of these pumpkins and bring them home for the kids.  Although these tiny pumpkins are too small to carve. You can give each one a different face.  Pick up some non toxic paint and let the kids go to work.

You could also use different crafting supplies to decorate these little pumpkins.  You can use those funny little squiggly eyes, different colors of contruction paper, pipe cleaner, or may other craft supplies to turn these cute little pumpkins into beautiful centerpieces or you can put them around the house as full decorations.  If you happen to use non toxic paint you can later skin the pumpkinds and each them without making you sick.

The tiny pumpkins don’t bruise or dent. You could also use them for fun outdoor games instead of using the bigger ones.  You could play pumpkin bowl or or a fun game of pumpkin toss.  If you are going to play these games make sure you do it on a soft surface so that the pumpkins don’t get damaged.

You don’t have to use the actual pumpkin to play different pumpkin activities, you could just use the image of the pumpkin.  You could create felt pumpkins and hang them around the house.  You could also draw a pumpkin on a big piece of paper and draw in the eyes and mouth and play pin the nose on the pumpkin.

Since we know all kids love to cook you could have your kids get all the seeds out of a pumpkin and let them do roasted pumpkin seeds.  You can find that recipe here.

If there are some favorite neighbors or even some elderly couples in your neighborhood your kids could give away decorated pumpkins to them. They neighbors will love the gifts and the kids will feel very proud.

You can also take empty gallons of milk and cut the tops off and paint the whole jug orange and then paint black eyes, nose, and mouth. Add a little sand in the bottom and a votive candle and then you can use them to light your walk ways on Halloween night.

There is so much you can do with a pumpkin so you and your child sit down and have some pumpkin fun this halloween.

photo credit: Franklin Park Library

I wanted to share this super quick super easy way that you can make cute pumpkins that can be hung all over the house or maybe even at your childrens school.

What you need:

• Large Piece orange felt
• Small Piece black felt
• Small green wire about 18 gauge
• Fabric or felt glue
• Black or orange embroidery floss
• Batting or cotten balls

Instructions:

1. Cut two circles out of the orange felt.
2. Cut the nose, mouth,stem and eyes out of the black felt
3. Glue the nose, eyes, and mouth to the face of pumpkin
4. Take black floss and stich two circles together
5. Add stem to ton the top of pumpkin between the two circles. At the top and bottom of the pumpkin make the stickes a little tighter to make a pucker affect.
6. Leave small opening near the bottom and insert stuffing just to fill the pumpkin nicely but you don’t want it too huge.
7. Stitch closed
8. Take smalle piece of wire. Wind wire around a pencil and make like a coil or loose spring effect.
9. Put a little bit of glue at each end and then stick between the pieces of orange felt. Hold down and make sure glue dries completely.

TaDa It is complete. You have a beautiful stuffed pumpkin. Hand made and something you should be very proud of.

photo credit: Phil Romans

When I think of pumpkins I think of a beautiful pumpkin patch with tons and tons of bright orange pumpkins laying all around. Those beauful orange fruit grow from the vines that normally run along the patch floor. When carved they can make funny faces or scary images. Or what is better then a hot baked pumpkin pie. But have you ever wondered what is a pumpkin?

Although the pumpkin is a strange looking fruit it is not the strangest fruit out there. The pumpkin is a type of gourd squash.

When you think of a gourd you think of a fruit that you would hallow out and then you may fill it with beads so that it could be used as a noisemaker. Gourds are normally a yellowish green, straight green, or orange in color.

The pumpkin is one of the larger gourds known and this gourd can be used for so much more then pretty on your table or a noise maker. You can add a candle in the pumpkin during Halloween but you could also fill it with soup and place it on the dinner table.

There are alot of different ways you can cooking a pumpkin. You could slice it up and fry it much like you would if you were frying suchini. Although the pumpkin is larger and much rounder then other squash you can still do many of the same things. A pumpkin also keeps for a long time. Once a pumpkin is cut off the vine you can store it in a dark cool place (make sure it is kept up off the ground) and it will normally keep for a few months.

If you look at the stem of the pumpkin you will notice that it resembles that of the stem of a yellow squash or Zucchini. But you will also notice that it is not near as flexible and is much more prickly. You should not pick up a pumpkin by it’s stem because that could damage the pumpkin.

Do you know the meaning of the word pumpkin? Pumpkin means “large melon”. You can either eat the pumpkin raw or you can cook and eat the pumpkin. You will receive much more nutrition if you eat the pumpkin raw then if you cooked it. Alot of people probley don’t think of the pumpkin as a fruit, but one criterion for considering something a fruit is it has seeds. And since a pumpkin is completely full of seeds that makes it a fruit.

And you can do a couple things with those seeds. You can roast the seeds and eat them that way or you can use them as a garnishment on other dishes. But Did you know that not all pumpkins are orange? Yes there are some that are albino. I thought that they used some kind of dye to make pumpkins white but I found out different when I began researching pumpkins.

You may also see some purple, green or even read pumpkins. Could you image decorating your porch with fall colored pumpkins? But until we start seeing more of these colored pumpkins check out Easy Pumpkin Painting.