Haunted Dining Room

Dining room decked out for Halloween

halloween lanterns

Welcome!

Our front entry decorated for Halloween

boo

In honor of Halloween I am posting Halloween pics from around our house. Enjoy!

pumpkins and more pumpkins

Tanya brought over pumpkins one of her employees had grown. These are the kind of pumpkins one would never find in the grocery store but ones you dream of finding. All shapes, sizes, variations, and the best part with long curly stems. Not only were these some of the best pumpkins I have ever seen they were free! The picture doesn't even do them justice. Thanks Joan we certainly put them to good use.

pumpkin carving

Halloween is my absolute favorite holiday. You get to wear costumes, eat candy, decorate with orange and black, and carve pumpkins - how can you top it? To get in the spirit (though my house has been decorated since October 1st) my sister and nephews came over a weekend of Halloween crafts, cookies, and pumpkin carving.

I now have glitter all throughout the house, will be finding pumpkin seeds for the next week, and have frosting over the entire kitchen but it was well worth it. Fortunately I had enough foresight to place black plastic tablecloths on the dining room table so that helped but it wasn't just the little dudes who contributed to the mess the adults did our share as well.

bicycles, tulips, canals, gouda, and windmills

If you can dream it up a bicycle has been converted like that here
tulip bulbs at the greenhouses on the canal
one of the few windmills that still exists in Amsterdam
a canalboat on a canal - the tourist mode of transportation
various boats on a canal - the low bridges don't make for many sailboats
a bit of gouda, much tastier than the gouda we have in the U.S.

Well it is really true Amsterdam is a city filled with bicycles, canals, Gouda, tulips, and windmills. Though there aren't many windmills anymore and the number of bicycles is crazy. The bicycles come in all sorts of configuartions as well, and there are certainly some creative modifications. It wasn't rare to see someone sitting on the back of the bike or a child in the front basket. Definitely worth a visit if you get a chance. I am certainly glad I took the opportunity to go with Sam and check it out.

moms - you always need them!

Once again it has been proved how much I still need my mom. She has been down in New Mexico since last Thursday with Sam's mom Cosima so someone could be with her when Sam and Zach couldn't be. Sam was so relieved just knowing she would be there and once he spoke to her when she was down there he was able to enjoy his few days off in Amsterdam.

Guess it is always true we definitely still need our moms and that they bail us out and take care of us (or our mother in laws) and do it with a smile on their face - or at least my mom does. Thanks mom for once again stepping up and helping us out and making it seem like it wasn't a big deal even though taking a week off from your life is.

And thanks Dad for giving her up for a week - I haven't a clue what you have been eating while she has been gone and there isn't a Subway on the island. Hopefully he hasn't lost too much weight and am sure the first home cooked meal when Mom gets back will taste even better than normal. On second thought knowing my mom she probably made several meals for him and stuck them in the freezer and filled the fridge for him so he could survive!

IQ Color Test

How color savvy are you? Check out your color IQ here.

I scored a 3 - the lower the number the better. Hey it was a bit like looking at paint chips and we know how much I love to do that since I am always wanting to change paint colors. When the local paint store starts giving you the contractor's discount you know you like to change it up.