Halloween

I've been feeling very much like baking since it has gotten cold. This has matched well with the holidays and all my recent time off, a.k.a. surgical recovery. I've made brownies, finished canning [with Mom's help], two batches of cookies, and I've got a bunch of cookie dough frozen for future cookie cutter fun with the kids. Having my parents here to help with my surgery was super. Extra hands, good company, so much attention for the kids, and always someone to chat with, play with, or help me get around afterwards when I couldn't drive. I started missing them before they even left last Thursday.

Coming off of my latest surgery, I totally sold out for the easy path this year and got both kids matching pumpkin costumes for Halloween. A week ago, on Saturday night, my moms group had a party with 45 people or so in a gymnasium we rented. Good potluck food, lots of activities and toys and much jovial milling about. It *might* have been overdoing it just 2 days after my gall bladder surgery, but was a lot of fun. I made sugar cookies and frosted them with Pequita's help. She really liked it. I let the kids frost their own cookies later, which involved a bit more frosting in their mouths and a little less frosting on the cookies.

We also went to the local grocery store Halloween candy give-away where we strolled around the whole store and the babes were given handfuls of candy in their pumpkins by costumed staff. In my anticipation of their enjoyment of being in and seeing other kids dressed in costumes, I overlooked the tiny fact that they aren't really allowed to eat candy but do really like it. Once Pequita and Monito figured out what was being dropped in their buckets, all desire to admire costumes, greet their friends, even to continue walking through the store, ceased. They sat hunched next to the tomato display plunging their hands into their plastic pumpkins and coming up with fistfuls of chocolate bars, gum balls, tootsie rolls, and other items they just aren't allowed to eat. I acquiesced and let them nibble on chocolate bars for a little while, which might have had something to do with the hour of screaming I endured on the drive home, through tubby time, and didn't end until we were warm, pink, pajama-clad and settled into tandem nursing on my bed. Homestead Mama had to work late and missed the joy. It was a true delight to have her arrive and help ease the household into sleep. I think we will have no more trick-or-treating until the kids are begging for it and allowed to enjoy some of the spoils.
One pleasure we *have* been enjoying is The Gingerbread Baby, illustrated by Jan Brett. Every night we read it at least once and finally I made gingerbread cookies. We can all enjoy them, as they only have a half cup of brown sugar. Little people, cats, dogs and hammers, all with white frosting. I found the hammer cookie cutter at Salvation Army, and knew immediately that my little tool nut would love it. Right now, Monito's favorite thing is Nunu, a.k.a. vacuum cleaners. He is a bit annoying about them, kissing them goodnight before he will consent to go to sleep, asking for them immediately upon waking in the morning. His favorite activity is for me to spread shredded paper on the floor for him to suck up as he makes little slurping sounds. He is also enamored of all things construction and cleaning, toting around brooms, drills, 2x4 lengths. We have bought him his own tape measure, which he treasures. He is only 16 months old. Below, they are brandishing their gingerbread hammer cookies. They were the clear favorites.