Halloweening

Our Halloween weekend started off on Thursday with a preschool Halloween party. Cora had been looking forward to this for weeks! Cora decided she wanted to be Cinderella for Halloween a few months ago... for her, there really were no other options, even when we found a super cute Sleeping Beauty costume online! The dress has been waiting in the closet for Halloween, being admired by Cora every morning.
At the preschool party, they had a lot of fun with Halloween games and dancing, and some of their normal preschool activities. Parents were invited to come for the last 15 minutes, so we went and took some pictures and saw all the kiddos dressed up. Pretty cute!

Here are all the little kids, except one little boy who had a breakdown right before picture -taking happened :). They decorated cupcakes to look like spiders and colored pumpkin cutouts too.
Friday we went trick-or-treating at Kevin's work. It was nice to see the new building and meet some of his coworkers. The girls got some good practice saying trick or treat and thank you. Violet still refused to put on any kind of a costume-- even bunny ears!-- but got some candy from generous people anyway. Both of the girls got quite freaked out by a candy bowl that had a motion activated hand... Violet was howling for a while after she went for a piece of candy out of that bowl!

Saturday we managed to convince Violet to put on a tutu and so she could go trick-or-treating with Cora. She was still fairly adamant about not dressing up until she saw our candy bowl and Cora in her costume.... maybe that's what helped her put two and two together! She was a little hesitant at first, but once she really connected that saying "trick or treat" connected with candy in her bag, she was all excited.
Just a little excited!
Violet got a little freaked out by some of the scarier porch decorations... she would shy away and say "scary, scary". Most of the houses though, she'd come down the stairs with her newly loaded treat bag saying "fun! fun!". There was one trick-or-treater with a pretty cool costume-- a guy on stilts really decked out as a monster. He totally scared the girls, we had to alter our trick-or-treat path and even then, after every house, they would ask where that tall guy was. I ran home for gloves in the middle-- it was a pretty nice night as late October goes, but the girls stayed out way longer than I thought they would, they had such a great time!

When we got home, we had some yummy dinner and answered our own door. I was really happy with how this soup turned out-- it's a combination of a couple of recipes. I LOVE butternut squash, this was a great fall treat!


Apple Butternut Squash Soup

1 butternut squash
2 apples, peeled, cored, diced
1 medium yellow onion, diced
3 cup chicken broth (add more for a thinner soup)
pinch nutmeg -- to taste
pinch cloves -- to taste
1-2 tsp. curry -- to taste
1/4 cup pure maple syrup (I omitted this)

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream


Stick whole squash in the microwave for about 5 minutes, until easy to cut. Cut lengthwise, finish cooking in the microwave or the oven until it's easy to scoop out the flesh. Put the squash in the crockpot. Add other ingredients, except cream. Let it cook on low for 3-5 hours or until contents are softened. You can transfer the mixture to the blender, or I used my handy immersion blender to puree it. Add the whipping cream at the end, serve with some yummy toasted bread!

Happy Autumn!