All Hallows Eve

Happy Halloween ya'll!!

This past weekend we hosted our 8th annual Halloween party.  I can't take much credit for this tradition, Ryan and his friends have been dressing up and celebrating Halloween together long before I came along.

At this point, everyone knows they better come in costume.  It's not optional, and I'm so glad we've set it up this way.  This year we had some GREAT costumes....but of course, I slacked on the picture taking after the beer started flowing so I've only got shots of the first few people that came.    Lo and Bri flew in from LA for the party and were dresses as LA Hipsters this year.  It was great to see them and hear all about how things are going for them in Cali.  They've been living there since April and we miss them more that I can say!

Chris and Brenna were Wayne and Garth from Wayne's World.  Pretty creative, and comfy outfits if I do say so myself.

Meg and Greg were a skeleton and muscle man.  Greg's costume was officially creepy.  First off, it was skin tight...in all areas (all the ladies know what I mean), then there was that weird mask.  The mask part was supposedly thin enough to drink through but Greg didn't test it.  It didn't take him long to figure out that major flaw of his costume was that he couldn't go to the bathroom without completely stripping down.

They even brought the deer foot along.  If you're part of the Murphy family, you already know that this foot has been re-gifted between the cousins for the last 5 Christmas's.  There's a photo book and tons of stories to go with it.  That foots been to New York, California and just about everywhere else in between.  It's been bedazzled, seen whales and even has a beer bottle open added to one end.

Since I suck and didn't get any other pictures of the night (except these cuties of my little Peanut) I'll just have to tell you about some of the other costumes.  Nick and Kimmy Kat came as Cruella De Vil and a Dalmatian puppy.   Sam and Juan might have to win the prize of the best costume.  They came as Gatsby and  Daisy from the Great Gatsby.  Sam even made herself a yellow car that she could wear/drive around in.  They stayed true to costume and drank only out of martini classes and Sam was even carrying around one of those long cigarette holders.  They looked great!

Anthony and Teresa get the award for most creative costume.  They came as Dexter and one of his victims.  Anthony's outfit was pretty simple...an apron and a knife but Theresa stole the show with her scantly clad dress.  She wrapped herself in a mini-dress of cellophane with some fake blood smeared between the layers.  I don't know how she could have stood out by the fire for hours but she did!

Who else am I forgetting??  Jamie and Zach came as a Teen Mom (her excuse to wear sweatpants and a t-shirt, but I can't blame her!) and a paintballer.  Betsy was a cowgirl for sure, but I can't remember what Pat was.  Ug...that's why you take pictures Sadie!!

We had a great time and are so happy that everyone came!  We'll be hosting again next year so mark your calendars for Saturday November 1st!!!  Start planning your costumes.  I'm thinking of giving out for real prizes next year.

1 Family x 12 (October)

For the first time in the history of knowing Ryan, he agreed to do a couples costume.  In years past when I've mentioned it, he's quick to turn me down, but this year, when I spun it as a "family" costume, he was on board!  I wish I'd gotten a few pictures of Abby standing up because her costume is so dang cute, but I'm dressing her up for daycare tomorrow so I'll grab some then.

Didn't our costumes turn our great?  I can't take ANY credit for them.  Ellyn, Ryan's mom, spent the last two weeks working hard making our costumes great.  When I was younger, my mom hand made our costumes every year.  I vividly remember the excitement of driving to Joann Fabrics in late September and flipping through the pattern books to pick out what we wanted.  I don't remember Mom ever telling us we couldn't be something, though I do remember having to think about how I'd bundle up if it was cold.  I was everything from a pumpkin, to the scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz, to a ballerina.  One year my sister wanted to be a Genie....and mom racking her brains on how to make it warm enough for her while still looking like a bare bellied genie.  

Ryan's mom also made the kids costumes and Ryan is NOT easy to please, nor did he "grow out" of requesting costumes from her....so she was not surprised at all to hear us asking for these custom made outfits.  Ryan's been everything from Darkwing Duck to the Thundercats.  He has an affinity for being scantily clad, so the idea of not having to wear pants as Fred was right up his alley.

With two great seamstresses in the family I'm debating if I want to take over the costume making for Abby as she grows up, or just keep letting the grandmas do what they do best :O)

More pictures from the party to come tomorrow.  Happy Halloween!

Weeknight Fire

You might remember from earlier in the week when I posted our family picture for September, that we were outside enjoying a nice fire as a family.  Well, it was too perfect of a moment to pass up snapping a few extras of my two favorite people in the world.

Abby's recently started to enjoy having her own mini furniture to sit on.  Joey and Andy got her a tiny couch for her birthday and it took her a good two weeks to not be afraid of it, but now she loves that thing.  She doesn't sit still on it for long, it's more like, sit down, stand up, sit on the arm and fall down on the floor, laugh, stand up, sit down, stand up, climb on top, jump around, sit down, etc.  But it does keep her busy and every so often she will lay back on it with her water cup and just relax for a minute or two.

This little green chair had exactly the same affect.  As soon as we brought it out, she knew it was for her and she plopped her little butt down and just chilled.  It was great!

My gosh, she's growing up before our eyes!!!  I love how independent and silly she is, she really has her own little personality, but I miss my baby too!

Just over a year after moving to this house, we still realize every day how happy we are living here.  For the first time in a long time we've finally got the space we need to spread out and enjoy the outside.  We're loving our little town of Hampshire and are so grateful for everything that happened to get us here.  #lovinglife

Late Summer Garden Roundup

Most of these pictures have already been posted on Facebook or Instagram so forgive the lack of new content.  I wasn't originally planning on doing a post about the garden but I've gotten a few requests and figured I'd be glad next year when I had all my thoughts here to refer back to so here goes nothing.  This is going to be a long post, so great your reading glasses on!

This year I started with the basics and figured I'd "fake it until I could make it".  I've never gardened before.  My parents ever had a garden when I was growing up, though my mom says she had one before we were born, and other than the Wares, I don't remember anyone else ever having one.  So I sort of started out by doing some reading, and talking to a co-worker about where to start.  Then I picked what I knew we would eat and went from there.

So, just what did I plant?

- 5 raspberry bushes.  Only 3 have survived the summer (I blame the dumb dogs) but I'm told they will spread in the years to come so they should be ok.  Raspberries take a few years to start producing fruit so I wanted to get them in the ground ASAP.
- 35 strawberry plants.  Like raspberry plants they take a season before you can let them fruit.  So we didn't have a strawberry crop this year, but I'm planning jam and all other strawberry sweetness for next summer.  Oh, and strawberries over ice cream?!?  Count me in!
- 40 feet of asparagus.  Again, this plant takes a few years of establishing before you can actually harvest.  Next year we should be able to eat a few shoots but likely we will have to wait til the following year.

Ok, on to the stuff that we actually got to eat this year!!  Jeesh!

-3 types of potato plants.  I planted Red, Yellow, and fingerlings.  I was able to start harvesting the red (or new) potatoes early in the season, around the 4th of July.  The remaining ones have already been pulled out of the ground and we've been using them here and there for dinners.  Next year though I think I will plan more red potatoes since those tend to be the ones we like best.  I also liked that they came up so early.  Perhaps I'll do half the bed with red potatoes, and then use the other half to try out pumpkins of squash for next year.

-3 tomato plants.  I bought some specialty plants from Jungs Garden Center out of Wisconsin.  They were grafted and touted larger crops.  Boy were they right!!!  I had tomatoes coming out of my ears!  I planted Romas and two other types.  I swore I planted grape tomatoes, but they came out larger than I'd expected, maybe they were cherry tomatoes?  The third type was a bit larger and I would not plant them again.  Next year I will probably do 3 plants again but I'll make sure to grab grape ones.  Oh, and green tomatoes!  I didn't grow them this year (or know to pick them before they were ripe) but Abby's sitter shared a fried green tomato with me the other day and I was hooked.  These babies are in my gardening future.  I'll talk more about what I did with them all in a bit

-1 cucumber plant.  This made just the right of cucumbers for our family, until I decided to start pickling them.  I felt like I had too many cucumbers to eat myself so I started asking around and although I though mine were to big to use, I tried anyways, and they turned out great!!  I used this recipe and they are so good.  I've got a few jars left for sharing if you want to try them!  Oh, and this plant came from seed!  Yea me!  I'll probably do 2-3 plants next year and plan to pick them small for pickling.

- 10ish red onion plants.  I bought the starts from a local farm stand/grower (Klein's for anyone local).  They were perfect and I'd do them again, though I'll probably add yellow onion next year as well.

- Spinach and Arugula.  I started these both from seed and neither of them took.  I didn't end up with any crop of these this year, so I'll try again next year.  I'll probably try a Musclun instead and see how that goes.

- 20ish plants of green beans.  I started these from seed as well and they actually grew!  Who knew!  I planted three different kinds, regular green beans, yellow beans and then these really flat larger ones.  I'll probably cut my crop in half and plant only the normal green beans next year.  Either that or I need to figure out how to can before next year.  I had too many beans to count.  I ended up blanching them and freezing them in freezer bags for the winter.  It works fine, but I need a bigger freezer.

- 40ish carrots - these guys are NOT making the cut for next year.  They were impossible to get out of the ground, a pain because I was always having to thin  them out and we just didn't eat the ones we finally harvested.  Ry likes carrots, so I did them for him, but honestly, they just didn't do it for me.  Maybe I'll try to do baby carrots and see how that goes.  I'll start small next year though!  But, i did grow them from seed, so bonus points for that!

- 5 green pepper plants - YUM!  These guys I started from seed, inside, and moved them out when it was finally warm enough. I got tons of yummy peppers.  Have you ever checked the price of organic peppers at the store? It's crazy!  Next year I will mix it up though and grow some other colors, like purple (yep!  They have those), yellow and orange.  5 plants is probably all we need though.  I sliced and froze quite a few bags for the winter.  I wouldn't eat them raw after freezing though.  I'll likely use them for cooking with.  And, I'm going to plant at least 1 jalapeno next year.  We aren't fans of really hot food, but I do use them occasionally, so why not grow them myself?!?

- 30ish beets.  Like carrots these need to be thinned and were sort of a pain.  But they are oh so good!  I can probably cut my crop in half next year, or can them, but they are so tasty.  Ryan's not a fan though so I can only eat so many on my own.  I used them this year to make beet salad a few times and as a side for dinners.

And, I think that is FINALLY the end of the list.  I'm really happy with most of the choices we made, though I pointed out a few changes I'll make for next year along the way.

After all that, you're probably wondering what I ended up stocking for winter right?  Here's the down and dirty on that.  I've got the pickles that are dwindling fast.  Though, that's ok.  They look canned here, but they technically aren't sealed and shelf stable.  They are refrigerator pickles so they'll last awhile in there, but we do need to eat through them here sooner rather than later.

I've got the bags of beans and peppers that I talked about above frozen and ready for winter.  And then the makings from my tomato cash crop!  I decided to keep it simple and stuck to three simple types.  I've got pizza sauce, spaghetti sauce and salsa packed up in bags and bags (and bags) for the winter.  We better start eating it now or we'll never finish it.  Plus, I need my freezer space back!  I debated between trying to do something from scratch but in the end it ended up just getting these spice packs and calling it a day.  I had a full weekend of just boiling, skinning and prepping to make the three combos.  I'd say it took me around 10 hours to put up just the tomatoes this year, so this process is not for the faint of heart (or for someone who has 10 bazillion projects coming out of her ears, like raising a baby, knitting, quilting, blogging, weekly photo projects, and a life that tends to lend it self towards being gone on weekends!), but I did it!  And I'll do it all again next year...with a few tweaks.

Anybody want to volunteer for helping next year?  You can take some of the spoils home at the end!  I see canning in my future for sure.

1 Family x 12 (September)

I'm SUPER late posting this picture for our September family photo.  It's very dark, and hard to see, but we were having so much fun one evening, just sitting outside enjoying the (FINALLY) cooler weather that we couldn't resist a quick family photo.

It's not my best photography skills but it was a fun night that I'd like to remember.

On a side note, it's been pretty quite around the blog lately.  Not because we aren't busy (we always are!), but because we just didn't have a lot of photos so I'm back on the blogging train.  Exept some more posts coming your way this week.