Witch's Broom Complete!

Well, here is the final product:

Close up on the bottom:

Another present on the doorstep

We got another present on our doorstep yesterday! This time, it was a broom with a poem attached:


Paint me, decorate me - do what you will
I'll stick around until I've had my fill
Watch me close, keep me near
On Halloween night, have some fear.
Unless they choose not to be wise
Kids beware of neighbors in disguise
I'm a witch's broom seady and true
On the 31st I may fly away from you!




Here's the game:
We decorate our broom and put it out in front of our house. Once Halloween week starts the stealing begins! We can steal as many brooms as we want but only one broom from any one person at a time. At the end of Halloween night, we get to keep the brooms we still have. Whoever ends up without a broom has to host the group.



Here is our broom before we decorate it!! This is going to be fun! We'll have to have it decorate by Thursday because we are going out of town on Friday night :)

Homemade Pumpkin Pie

I absolutely love this time year, mainly because it's pumpkin season! This year, I decided I would make a pumpkin pie with a real pumpkin. I used a blue pumpkin, which has less seeds and "goo" and more "meat" than a traditional pumpkin. FYI, blue pumpkins smell like watermelons!

Before - that doesn't even look like a pumpkin!

After

It took a while to cut the pumpkin. Thank goodness for a good knife and muscles!

We finally got the pumpkin cut in half...it's orange inside! I mean I knew it was going to be orange inside but didn't really know :)

We scooped out all of the yucky stuff! I saved the seeds so I could roast them later.


The next step is to put the pumpkin into the microwave with a little bit of water and cook until the pumpkin is soft. Scoop out the meat and throw away the skin.

Put the meat into the food processor and blend until creamy smooth.

Here's the pie before it went into the oven. YUMMY!

Benjamin taking a break from school work and eating some pie!

The verdict is in...both Benjamin and I think the pie tasted just like a canned pumpkin pie. Benjamin thought you could taste more spices in the homemade pie. We also both agreed that the homemade crust was a lot better that the store bought crust. I think I'll just stick to canned pumpkin pies with homemade crusts!

The boo got booed!

We got booed!! It's a game our neighborhood plays in October. We found a bag on our doorstep with a gift, ghost and instructions inside:

This treat is for you, We hope you enoy
this idea is simple, one we hope you employ.
You pass "boo" along to 2 other neighbors
Along with any kind of Halloween favors.
If we all do our part and spread the good cheer
by Halloween night it will be very clear.
We're a friendly bunch, we like to share fun
So please do our part and keep "boo" on the run!







We got a spiced pumpkin reed diffuser from Yankee Candle!

Pumpkin patch

Last night, we went out to eat at a "Mexican" pub. It's pretty good food but the menu is a little confusing. Right next to the quesadilla description, is a listing for BBQ chicken and catfish? What? Doesn't seem right but at least there is a Mexican place around us.


We saw this on our television screen today. Thanks AFN! We thought this was pretty hilarious!




Benjamin and I went to a pumpkin patch in Lakenheath Village. We got to pick our own pumpkins!


Here I am in the patch!

We got a blue pumpkin, which is apparently the best for making pumpkin pies (according to the sign on this crate). We'll see! I'm going to try to make a pie from scratch this year.

Here Benjamin is with our pumpkins!

Pumpkin Time

I love autumn because that means I can go overboard with pumpkins! I love making pumpkin cookies, cakes, bread, cheesecake, pudding, you name it I've probably made it. Benjamin gets pretty excited about all the pumpkin goodies I make. Last year was the first year that I can remember carving pumpkins and I can't wait to do it again this year. Maybe it won't take 2 hours to do! To my delight, I found these lovely bars in the commissary! Thank you Kashi! 

 

I am going to be on the search for some more recipes this year.  Autumn just feels different in England. It actually feels like it is supposed to, not horribly hot like in Texas or North Carolina. It actually feels like a season change oh and by the way, it is starting to get darker over here a lot earlier than we were used to. I got to take down the sheet we had hanging up over the window. We had a sheet up, so the sun wouldn't be so bright in the mornings when the sun would come up at 4 in the morning. I've heard pretty soon that it will be completely dark by 4:00 pm!! I just can't imagine that!!

In other news, we bought Beatles Rockband a few days ago. It's really awesome! I'm learning a lot of songs, that I didn't even know they sang. It has several clips of audio before and after you play a song. Sometimes they talk about cheese and marmite sandwiches, which we all know is a Ploughmans or maybe just Benjamin and I know that, other times it's more serious commentary about the song. It's pretty epic playing the game and knowing that we live in England. I really want to go to Liverpool at some point and I'm sure we will. I want a picture on Abbey Road, even if Benjamin thinks I can't!

We also got our Scotland book from Amazon.co.uk today! We are getting ready for our New Years trip and fell in love with the dk travel books. Thanks mom for getting us hooked, the London book is wonderful and we've used it every time we go.