Autumn at the Arboretum: It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!

Autumn at the Arboretum, named one of "The Best Pumpkin Festivals to Visit This Fall," by Martha Stewart Living Magazine.  

We love visiting the Dallas Arboretum in every season of the year but they always have the best pumpkin patch in the DFW Metroplex.  This year the Pumpkin Village is themed "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!".

There are Peanuts characters scattered throughout the pumpkins.

Schroeder listens on as Rachel plays on the giant topiary piano.

Lucy offers garden advice for a nickel.

And of course, Snoopy and Woodstock hang out on the roof of Snoopy's pumpkin topiary house.

The festival features breathtaking colors of fall including 150,000 autumn flowers accented by 90,000 pumpkins, gourds and squash.

I love the beautiful pumpkin topiary houses like this one that are scattered throughout the Village.

The inside of each house is decorated with its own cute Peanuts theme.

While you are exploring, pick out a pumpkin to take home and decorate.

Off to the side of the pumpkin patch is one of the beautiful "Celebrate the Children" sculptures by Gary Lee Price.

Walk along the edge of the Village to learn about all of the different and unique species of pumpkins.  From smooth pumpkins....

to bumpy pumpkins....

to squash and gourds.

About the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden:

The Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden is located on the southeastern shore of White Rock Lake at 8525 Garland Road, Dallas, Texas 75218.  The Dallas Arboretum is also the home of the internationally acclaimed Rory Meyers Children's Adventure Garden. The Arboretum is open daily from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. On-site parking is $15; pre-purchased online parking is $9. For more information, call 214.515.6500 or visit www.dallasarboretum.org.

Halloween Snacks

We had fun making Halloween themed snacks.  We started with my favorite - roasted pumpkin seeds!  These were left over from our pumpkin carvings but with just a little bit of work they turn into a wonderful fall snack.

We poured about a tablespoon of oil over them then mixed in a little brown sugar, salt, and pumpkin pie spice.  We roasted them in the oven at 250 for about 45 minutes.  The sugar caramelized and added a wonderful crunch to the pumpkin seeds.  It is so delicious!

For lunch we had Mummy Dogs.  They are even easier to make!  We used refrigerated crescent roll dough cut into strips and wrapped around hot dogs then baked according to the crescent roll package directions.  I stuck some peppercorn eyes in them to make them just a bit more mummy-riffic. 

As if we needed more sweets around here, we also made our traditional Halloween treat, Candy Bones.  We used mini marshmallows, white candy melts, and pretzel sticks.

The kids stuck a mini marshmallow on each end of a pretzel stick.  There may have been a few marshmallows sampled during this process.

They used forks to dunk their bones in the melted candy and then placed them on parchment paper to dry.

I like these Candy Bones because the saltiness of the pretzel tones down all the sweetness from the marshmallows and candy.  It's just the perfect combination!

Halloween Spooktacular at the American Girl Store

Rachel was excited to dress up in her Halloween costume this morning as we went to the Halloween Spooktacular at the American Girl store in Dallas.

We got there early and watched the line curve around the store.  It was fun looking at all the little girls in their cute costumes with American Girl dolls in hand.

Once inside, everyone got back into another line to make a Halloween craft.  Rachel was so disappointed when we finally got up to the craft station and discovered that in the interest of time, the store workers were making the craft for the kids and then just handing it to the kids.  Rachel loves crafts and she was obviously not happy with this craft experience.

But she also got to enter a drawing for a free American Girl doll and she got a free book and Halloween stickers.

We spent a little time looking around the store.  She enjoys looking at all of the dolls and learning about the historical times that some of the dolls are from.

Then we spent an hour or two just playing with all of the dolls and furniture in the store.  It's our favorite part of visiting the American Girl store!

Halloween 2015

We had a great Halloween!  Rachel was a Candy Corn, Nicholas was a Star Wars sith guy, and I was my usual witchy self.

We don't usually put out much in the way of decorations for Halloween but this year we happened to see some cute inflatables at Wal-Mart for $14 each so I let each of the kids pick one out.  Nicholas got the giant purple spider in the picture above.  Rachel loves cats so she picked the cat jumping out of a pumpkin.  They light up too so they look really cute at night.

We had fun walking around the neighborhood with our friends.  Stuart and I both go out with the kids because Nicholas and his friends are usually faster and want to go farther than Rachel and her friends do so Stuart stays with Nicholas and I stay with Rachel.

I was sad that Nicholas was considering not going out for trick or treating this year.  As exciting it is to see the incredible young man he is growing up to be, it still pulls at my heart strings a little to see him slowly leaving bits of his childhood behind as he grows up.  But I think after talking to his friends, who were all going trick or treating, he decided to wait until next year to stay home.  Watch out then because he plans to scare all the kids that come to our door!

Ghost Balloons {Halloween Activity for Kids}

The kids participated in a fun STEAM program at our local library today.  STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math.  The program started with the librarian reading aloud Balloons over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy's Parade by Melissa Sweet.

It is a great book the told about the inventor of the amazingly giant balloons that float overhead in the Macy's parade and how they are actually like upside down puppets.
Hmm, but what could balloons have to do with the baking soda and vinegar we see on the table?? 

After the story, the kids watched a video from How It's Made to learn how latex balloons are made.   It is so cool to learn all that goes into making such a simple little balloon.

Then it was time for the kids to make Ghost Balloons!  First you draw a scary face on a white balloon then use a funnel to pour 2 Tablespoons baking soda into the balloon.   Our librarian had already filled the balloons with baking soda before the class so she temporarily sealed them with painter's tape so the kids could draw on them and not spill all of the baking soda out.  If you do this at home, just draw the face on the balloon before you fill it.

Then you fill an empty plastic water bottle with 1/2 cup of vinegar.  Keep the balloon hanging down to keep the baking soda in the balloon and carefully slide the lip of the balloon on to the water bottle.  Once the balloon is securely on the bottle, lift the balloon and let all of the baking soda fall down into the bottle.

The baking soda (solid - base) will mix with the vinegar (liquid - acid) to create a carbon dioxide (gas).  The gas rises and fills the balloon with CO2 and your ghost suddenly appears!

We've done experiments (and free play) with baking soda and vinegar but this one was new for the kids.

It was a great program and a fun way to play with science.  We love our library!

If you are looking for some more Halloween fun, visit the Flower Mound Library on Wednesday, October 29th from 5:00 - 8:00 pm for their Haunted Library!  Kids K-5 can come in costume and trick or treat through a library tour then have fun with games and crafts at their mini-carnival.  The event is free but you will have to have a ticket to attend.  Tickets can be obtained at the Youth Services desk on the morning of the event starting at 9:00 am. 

Trick or Treat 2013

It is Halloween again and the kids had a lot of fun picking out their costumes this year.  I first pulled up a costume website and let them look through all that was out there so they could start thinking about what they wanted.  Rachel picked out an angel costume.   Then she picked out Strawberry Shortcake and said that would be her costume for next year.

Then she picked out a grand list of costumes that would last her for 7 upcoming Halloweens.  I tried to explain to her that what is a favorite costume now probably won't be a favorite costume next year and certainly not 7 years from now.  But she said she KNOWS she will still love the costumes on her list.  She promises!

Our trip to Party City was very easy since she knew exactly which costume she wanted.

As usual, Nicholas wanted a scary costume.  He knows I won't approve those though so he quickly moved on.  He found a few that weren't too scary but then decided to go with the Ice Wolf Ninja costume.  I think he just wanted the Ninja blades.

Rachel wanted to look like she was flying for this picture!

Stuart and I both go out with the kids as they trick-or-treat around the neighborhood so we aren't home to give out candy.  But as we were starting to head out, this cute little Darth Vader came to the door.  I had a few pieces of candy ready for just such an emergency.  Nicholas was really excited about getting to hand out candy.  Just think, in a few years he will be too old to go trick-or-treating and he will be stuck at home just handing out candy.  Oh, they grow up too quickly! 

We met up with our neighbors and some other friends and traveled around together for the night.  Nicholas and the older boys stayed together and mostly ran a few houses ahead of the rest of us.  Some of the dads were able to keep up with them so they weren't alone.  Nicholas had a light up sword that came out of his bag once it got dark which was neat because we could at least how far ahead of us he was.

The girls were a little slower and we stayed with them.

Rachel was just giddy with excitement each time she left a house with a little more candy in her bag.

She really is such an angel!

I love watching Stuart taking such good care of her.  He walked hand in hand with her letting her know when to watch her step (we have uneven sidewalks that are hard to see at night).  He also helped direct her to houses that had their porch lights on so she could be most efficient with her candy hunting.  Good memories!

Our hard little workers were excited to finally get home and examine their bounties.

Some couldn't wait to dig in!

Happy Halloween!

Spook-a-rific Pumpkin Carvings

Nicholas picked the name for this post :)

Earlier today I realized that it was the day before Halloween and we still had not carved a pumpkin this year.  Well, that had to be remedied.

It is a little challenging finding a nice carving pumpkin on the day before Halloween but with some perseverance it can be done...especially if you don't mind getting pumpkins with a few lumps or a squished backside.

After dinner, we dug right in.

Nicholas has always hated pumpkin guts!  

But once he got going he didn't stop.

Rachel was a little grossed out too!

She actually wimped out and asked me to finish cleaning out her pumpkin for her.

We had the Pumpkin Masters Kids Carving Kit.  It is a great product.  You pick out your stencil which has holes punched along the pumpkin face's outline.  Tape the stencil to your pumpkin and color over the holes with the enclosed black crayon.  Then simply use the carving knife to punch out the holes to make the pieces perforated and punch them out.  Our kids chose to just use the knife to saw along the dotted lines and the carving knife was up for the task.

Rachel had me help with the stencil and starting the first hole for the carving knife when she would start on a new area but she did all of the actual pumpkin carving herself.

She was actually quite good at carving smoothly on the dotted lines and she was quick too!

We saved all of the pumpkin seeds.  We'll roast them for a yummy snack.  Do you happen to have a good recipe for roasting pumpkin seeds?  If so, I'd love to hear about it.

Nicholas' design was more intricate than Rachel's so he took a while to finish his. 

Rachel came over to check out his work and encourage him.  So sweet!

Ta Da!  Here is Nicholas' pumpkin all carved.

We added the eye accents and some light.  He's pretty spooky, isn't he?

The carving kit came with several choices of eyes that just poke into the pumpkin.  They look really great!

Here is Rachel's with her pumpkin.  She chose a sweet smiley face to make.

After our pumpkin carving was done, the kids finished getting ready for bed.  Then they climbed up in our bed as Daddy read them some Halloween books.

We'll leave these guys outside our front door for a few days.  I'm so impressed with how well the kids did carving these all by themselves!