A fun week of birthday and Halloween festivities!
Monday: Samuel Turns 11
Tuesday: Carving Pumpkins
Wednesday: Stacking Firewood For a Friend
We spent 3 hours Wednesday morning stacking firewood for a friend who recently had shoulder surgery. Here are some before, during and after pictures. We made a huge stack, 3 layers deep, of firewood.
Thursday: Halloween!
Talea having a picnic with her baby dolls.
I spent the day dehydrating herbs and fruit, making rolls, and making “Dinner in a pumpkin.” That’s our traditional Halloween dinner we’ve eaten since 2007. I first had it in 2003 and got the recipe but we didn’t have an oven until 2007 so that’s when I made it for the first time and have made it every year since! It’s a super fun tradition the kids love.
Then it was out to trick-or-treat in the country!
One of our favorite stops is the gourd Man’s house to pick out gourds he grows. Then we plant the seeds and grow our own. Another favorite stop is Vicki’s house with the big blow ups and she always takes our picture.
Dumping out the candy bags, sorting, counting and trading. While the kids do that I always scoop out all the pumpkin from Dinner in a Pumpkin and putting it in bags for the freezer. That pumpkin made 13 bags!
Friday: Overnight Hike With Samuel!
Last year on Samuel’s birthday we did a 12 mile hike and saw an area you can hike to and set up camp. We decided we’d do it sometime. Well you know how time gets away from you and some adventures never happen. This year for his birthday we determined to make it happen. Especially with Madalyn here to babysit the kids and have fun with them.
We had a great time! We hiked in with all our stuff: tent, sleeping bags, sleeping pads, camp chairs, and backpacks with clothes and food. We set up camp around 6pm and read, talked, and practiced our play around the campfire. It was so fun only having one child! I’ve never only camped with one child before.
On Saturday morning we packed up, hiked out with our stuff and left it in the van, then hiked the 12 mile loop trail. It’s strenuous but lots of fun. Of course some parts we’re thinking, “Why are we doing this again?” But mostly we love it. I love a good, long hike. And this one is beautiful for the most part so I love it. Samuel is an awesome hiker and lead the way the whole time.
An overnight hike has been on our wish list of adventures to do together so I’m really glad we finally got to do it. It was great!
Oops! Forgot to put these pictures from before we left on Friday. I took the middle 3 kids to a cleaning job I had and they were great help. Then we went to the library where we ate our sack lunch and used the wifi to get some videos uploaded. At home before Sam and I left the chickens came to say goodbye and were so pretty running around with the last of the fall leaves behind them.
