Fall Fun

Admittedly, fall is NOT my favorite season. I mourn the passing of the warm, lazy days of summer and I dread the coming cold, dreariness of winter. Fall in SE Idaho lasts about 2 days as well before the snow flier and we are socked into winter for half of the year. But both Abi and Tal love fall for the leaves. They had a great time raking and building this giant leaf pile in our front yard. Tal had been dying to rake the leaves on Sunday but he couldn't, so on Monday he burst home from school and grabbed the rake. He was a more than a little upset when I made him come in and do his piano practicing and homework first. But when he saw I wasn't budging, he raced through he chores in record time.
Leah loves the leaves as well. She loves getting outside everyday after lunch for 15-20 minutes. Some days we walk around the block and as the first leaves started falling she would squeal in delight as she crunched across them. Then she would turn around and dance back across them again to hear the delightfully crisp sound.
On Saturday, Kris took Abi and Tal to the U-Pick pumpkin patch to choose the prefect pumpkin for our jack o'lanterns. Leah was recovering from the flu, so we had to stay home.
They regaled me with stories about the corn maze and how much fun they had. Abi confided that by the 3rd time she had it memorized and so "it was easy."
They also got to ride on this fun little train. See them peeking out of the yellow caboose.
On Monday night we carved our jack o'lanterns. This year we gave in and bought the $4 carving kit. We are NEVER going back to plain old knives. It was quick, easy and little chance of impaling ourselves or chopping off a finger. Leah got into the act by smearing pumpkin innards all over her belly.
We turned out some pretty cool pumpkins. Tal's is a face of flames. Abi's is a bat. My favorite part is making the roasted pumpkin seeds. They are soooooo addictive. Recipe below from one of my favorite sites: www.Allrecipes.com.

Spiced Pumpkin Seeds
1 1/2 Tbsp margarine, melted
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp garlic salt
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce ( I used more because I love it.)
2 cups cleaned pumpkin seeds

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Mix all of the ingredients together to coat pumpkin seeds and pour onto cookie sheet. Bake for 1 hour, turning every 15 minutes or so. Enjoy!!!