Halloween 2008

Why is it that everyone's Halloween decorations have been up for what feels like months? I don't feel like I need a month to celebrate Halloween. There are so many kids functions, starting way back in September. I like to have a few extra besides the actual day, but come on!

Of course, I'm just bitching about it because we just put our decorations. Today. ;-p

Elise had a costume ballet class yesterday, and the kids had their school parties today. And of course tonight......

And then we will leave our decorations up til Thanksgiving. At least :-)



Halloween always starts with the carving of pumpkins at our house:















Walking to school this morning.....
At school, we always have a Halloween Parade. Usually it is through the school, with each grade walking through the other grade's classrooms. It is very chaotic and crowded (imagine most of the parents and younger siblings lining the school halls whilst the children all walk by.....). This year, since it was so warm, they decided to do the parade outside.

Here comes kindergarten with Dr. Hilliard (the principal) -
The kids all walked around to the back of the school, made a giant circle, and then did a circle inside the circle one grade at a time. Remember, we have about 400 students at our school.......
Kindergarten Parade: kinder parade


3rd Grade Parade:


Then all of the grades have their own Halloween parties. Here are some assorted pictures of both K and 3rd grade.

And here we are ready for Trick-or-Treating. The Grande Finale.
Returning from Trick-or-Treating. What a great night - they are home, and it is still 60 degrees outside! Gotta love Colorado.....

More Birthday Party

This girl will have the most spread out bday ever! Last night, Elise opened gifts from mom and dad. On her actual birthday, we will have a fun school project, goodies for friends at school from Elise, a playdate after school with school friends, and THEN more friends over for dinner. Whew!

We'll be making jam.....

green tomato jam....... if you want the best jam, you gotta make your own......
(Think Michelle Shocked singing this)

And salsa.

Tanya and I made lovely yummy concoctions out of our collective green tomatoes. The jam recipe was borrowed from this blog for freezing, and the salsa was from a USDA recipe for canning.

Kids were very patient...... We so miss our all day playdates!

The house still smells wonderful.

Early Bday Party

We celebrated Elise's birthday a little early this weekend with a gymnastics party at the rec center, and then cake and crafts at the park nearby. It was almost warm enough to do this, almost.











(That's me, jumping into the foam pit!)


Funny thing, most of my pictures are blurry. Those silly kids just wouldn't stop running around! And then my camera batteries died, so I have very few pictures from her party.


Elise the Floating Fairy:



Ah well, it was fun, fairies and dragonflies abounded, only one fit of sadness.








As usual, John created a cake worthy of the day..........

Fairy Crafts......




A finished fairy......


Opening gifts........

New.....

I keep forgetting to post about our newest family addition - a nephew!

Jonathan Robert Haley - 9 lbs 11 oz, last Friday.

Welcome to the world, Jonathan~

Raku

Sara, Robin and I did a raku workshop this weekend, along with 8 others at Goodson Rec Center. We spent an intense, 11 - hour day glazing pots, crawling through a window, waiting, fighting flames, crumpling newspapers, cleaning sooty pots, breathing smoke, dipping our hands in black sooty water, waiting. It was so worth it.

Raku is an ancient Japanese art, that has been totally changed here in the US to mean using a gas-fired kiln to heat pots/melt glaze to 2000 degrees, then put said pots into a combustible material, let burn a short time, then reduce the oxygen to the fire causing beautiful colors to emerge on the pots. We hung out in the courtyard of the rec center, where a makeshift propane kiln with a 50-gallon drum cover heated our pots. That part of the process took anywhere from 45 minutes to 1.5 hours, depending on how hot the pots were before you put them in, how many pots were in the kiln, and what glazes were used on the pots. Glowing hot pots were transferred to trash cans filled with newspapers, where the rest of us fed the fire then smothered it with trash can lids. The smoke was horrendous, think campfire smoke, all day long, with newspaper with lots of glossy ads burning. Who knows what we did to our lungs on Saturday? The trash cans were allowed to smolder for a good 30 to 45 minutes with the pots inside, then we were able to see the results. We went through this whole process about 6 or 7 times (I lost count!)

We used a variety of glazes, of which only the texture was guaranteed, not the color. As you can see in the pictures, they turn out quite metallic and colorful, but is totally random. Well, it depends on where in the kiln the pot sat (near the flame, how hot, etc), what glaze was used, how long the pot sat after the kiln was opened (it took about 5 minutes to unload the kiln into the trash cans) and how quickly the flame ignited, and how much smoke was created, etc etc etc.

I loved the earthiness of it all, watching the kiln glow, glowing orange-yellow pots, putting the pots into fire (!), digging the sooty pots of of the ashes. Hanging out in the beautiful Colorado autumn weather! (It was in the high 60's that day - it so could have been snowing!) A connectedness to the process you don't normally get from pottery.

And best of all - the closest thing to instant gratification you can get in pottery. We went from bisqueware to completely glazed in one day!Raku pieces are not food safe - not water safe anyway. You could use food if you don't have to wash the item - like for a candy dish or what not. But they are basically decorative. And wow, what colors came out! So different from regular glazed pots.

These pots are by many different people - I'm not saying which are mine. (Big hint - the big beautiful pieces are certainly not mine! ;-) Some of these might be given as holiday gifts, so I don't want to ruin any surprise!

Did a few videos to show the process of going from kiln to trash can.