5 on Friday

today: 5 photos of our pumpkin carving session from this morning!

When it came time to clean out the giant pumpkin this morning, the ones that were the most excited about it yesterday, skipped it today. but we still had enough to get it done.  I decided that since the pumpkin was on the front step & it was nice out, we'd just go to it & do the messiness in the front yard.

 

 it was even so warm, we quickly shed our jackets!

then we called everyone over for a group shot of the masterpiece.

 this one is minus the fussies & w/Sam (which they thought was hillarious. :)

and a bonus shot of all the pumpkins/ornamental gourds we grew in the back yard this summer!!

have a great halloween weekend!!

Thankful Thursday

wagon ride thru the country at sunset?! sign me up!!!

 What a blast this was!!!

 these are my 5 neices/nephews (so far-expecting another in January) they are my loves!!!

I truely had no idea I could love achild w/the fierceness I do for them.

Grandma said 'this will probably be the quietest we will ever see this group. they were perfectly behaved, well mannered little people the whole 4 mile ride!!

um yea, would you guess these 2 aren't blood related?!

gma, mom, Eli (on the phone, seriously??! lol)

Tim was thrilled to be along -ha!  he ws there for the chili supper to follow.  but he was hanging out in a tshirt & mom had 4 layers on :)

this shot needs some color balance to see the clouds/sunset appropriately!

& in the final stretch they finally understood why Great Gma had the blankets!

gma/gpa, brother Philip

When gma started playing the piano all the kids gathered around! so fun to see her share it w/another generation! I remember being right there on the floor once!!

Today I am thankful for Family!! My brother's cancer is growing, attacking the nerves in his brain that control the right arm, leg & hand.  He has no grip, can't move the arm Or control the leg. he walks w/an obvious limp as he throws that leg to the side to walk on it.  I am thankful we get to keep him for a while longer & that his children & wife get more time w/him as well. I am so thankful & grateful that they invited us into their chaotic & unsettled home so soon-a mere 2 days-after the doctor visit that explained these symptoms to them.  Love your family, tell them you love them & appreciate every day you have with them!

pumpkin baking

remember these?& I said there were more added after the photo? welllll yesterday being a blustery day I decided it was a good time to bake pumpkin.  So I grabbed a medium one from the step, cut it in half,

scrapped the seeds & almost all of the strings out,

put it in a 11x15 glass baking dish w/an inch of water & popped it in the oven @350 for an hour or so until the skin was pierce-able (is that a word?) -see the fork holes?    I let them cool & depending on the kind of pumpkin, some will just peel like an orange, others (like this one) need scraped, I used the same ice cream scoop I used to take the seeds & strings out.

From there, I put it in the chopper (& I have a whole other post about that lil machine) & what seemed like another hour later,(from the chopper NOT the scraping), it was beautiful pumpkin puree.. 3.5 cups worth from one medium pumpkin! yahooooooo!! money well spent!! Farmer's Market bay-bee!! 5 more to go :)

I put 3 cups in the freezer & used the other half cup to make pumkin cake yuuuummmmmy!

I also cooked a turk's turbin squash but have no pics of it :(  Luckily, I have 3 more out there to do yet but its the sammmmmmme process only w/alot more product in the end!  they are the big ugly things in the back of

 my pile o produce.  Speaking of this pile.. its going to continue to shrink this week as I keep cooking up the goods. that lil orange pumpkin & the rest of the squash, all that will be left will be a small basket of gords.

the tour

here is our home as decorated for halloween. I will swap out some of the halloween decorations for more fall decor the first week of November.

I have since added several (5) more pumpkins to the step.. some for carving, some for eating...

I have a collection of plastic canvas magnets they love to play w/.

this arrangement is in the old tin waterer that sits in the childcare

this is my paycheck basket that hangs on the rail of the 'down' steps & the leaf garland that is wrapped around the rail

heading up from the front door, is the banister (at least that's what I call it) that holds lots of goodies.

 

 

a wider shot of the 'skull shelf' @ the top of the stairs (you've seen this over & over this month-sorry)

one of Tim's scarey 'toys' that stands in the front window & 'greets' everyone in the driveway.more of Tim's scaries.

 

 ah... the bountiful front step! I love this arrangement!

on the floor of the entry way.

one of my many scarecrows.. I kind of collect them. I guess.

one of the 5 spiders we made for childcare.

the lovely swag I was able to save from last year's farmer's market! love love!

its not much of an organized tour but ... there you go..my decorations for October. Now that I've shown you mine, time to show me yours :)

The End.

of the garden that is :)  gotcha didn't I?? ;) sorry!!

 

the end of the tomatoes & peppers .. so sad to see them done! but I have a decent pile of green tomatoes on the counter to chop for the freezer!

 
 the littles picking the end of the green beans. they loved this job way more than I expected them too. I took these shots from the tomato row. Had no idea Blake was tasting the panel until I was uploading them to edit. LOL KIDS!!!









 Kids & green beans, they love to pick & snap them & will even eat a couple. Some of them will eat them all if I don't pull some out for the freezer! :) YAY!! 

just some misc shots around the garden

hoping to gather some more photos from around the house for tomorrow, maybe a craft or even show off my new mum from the farmer's market! have a great Monday!!!