I have always loved Halloween. When I was young, I read a Ray Bradbury book called the Halloween Tree. I read it once, twice and then again, repeating that every fall. I loved that book.
The book starts on Halloween and takes a group of children on a scary journey through cultural history and version of Halloween, as they attempt to catch up with and save a dying friend. One of the key elements is the Mexican celebration Dia De Los Muertos (The Day of the Dead) which seemed fascinating to me.
Celebrated on on Nov. 1st and/or 2nd, The Day of the Dead is where gatherings of family and friends to pray and remember loved ones who have died. Some other cultures celebrate similar holidays as well and the Day of the Dead has its roots in Aztec culture. The idea is to honor the dead but also that people who have passed away are supposed to be able to hear your prayers better at this time than any other time. November 1st is traditionally to celebrate children who have died and November 2nd for adults.
Dia De Los Muertos isn’t as sad as it sounds, it is rather upbeat. Good candy, good food and good memories. The celebration can be at the graveyard or an altar/shrine in your home. You decorate with photos, food flowers, candles and items of those of who have passed away or things they’d like. You are supposed to tell funny and warm stories about those people and talk to them.
I was printing of some weekly reading assignments I thought would interest Hayley and found a great one of the Day of the Dead but it was written for 5th to 7th graders. Of course, she read it perfectly and loved it too. So we decided to make our own shrine at home to celebrate.
Interestingly last night Hayley was over at my folks and they went to the family graves this morning to tidy up. How perfect for our Day of the Dead event!
We set out to do it for my Grandpa Jim, Grandma Jeannette and Uncle Mike (my mom’s parents and her brother) but then Hayley decided we should add in our dog Sam who passed away, which was awesome. We made sugar skulls ourselves and decorated them in the style. Hayley talked to my mom and made lists of food and hobbies of our family members who passed. I got out photos, my grandmother’s engagement and wedding rings, my granddad’s prayer books and golf hat and ton of articles on my uncle’s golf championships plus Sam’s dog collar. My mom made a family recipe book that was a great addition. We added all sorts of food and snacks – doggie biscuits too. (I’m going to post a photo on flickr with all the items labeled.)
After some time talking to them, we ate the candy and food and blew out the candles. It was a great way to share about family history, learn about another culture’s history and traditions, not to mention be creative and silly! (It is so much fun it is to have a child with an inquisitive spirit.)
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We went this super fun kids/tween beauty salon called Sweet & Sassy. Hayley had her hair done, a manicure and pedicure. It was just adorable – and a totally glitter filled experience, lol. It was a really fun time and we totally recommend this place.
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The National PTA Reflections Program is an arts recognition and achievement program for students. The Reflections Program provides opportunities for students to express themselves creatively and to receive positive recognition for original works of art inspired by a pre-selected theme, while increasing community awareness on the importance of the arts in education.
(she’s not smiling because this is her serious artist look, haha)
Hayley is entering two of her photographs from the beach for a school based art competition. Recognition is great but this was more about creating something. We had a great time doing it and you know when your ten year old thanks you repeatedly for doing it, you know you are on the right track.
Getting some good photos for the competition was something we worked on at the beach. The theme for this year’s competition is ‘WOW’ so we figured we’d have some good wow things down there. She’s got a great eye and is completely comfortable using my big Nikon.
This was a great process for her to go through – setting up shots, looking at light and perspective, picking the good shots (25 down to 12 down to 2), editing them (cropping and brightening/contrast) all her decisions on how to do it. The moment she picked them up at the print shop was really neat, she was beaming.
We mounted them on canvas, put them in protective sleeves. Then I had to fill out 4 pages of stuff and she had to work on her part – titles and she had to make an ‘artist statement’ for each on how the work connect to the theme. I put the photos and her ‘statements’ below.
Cape Hatteras Lighthouse
My photo called Cape Hatteras Lighthouse shows how tall the lighthouse is when you take a photo looking up at it. It has 268 steps up it and I climbed them. It is the tallest lighthouse in the United States. It is 208 feet high and weighs 4800 tons.
It was built right after the Civil War in 1870. In 1999, it was moved because the ocean was going to move up around it. It looks like it could crush you to move anything that tall and big.
The lighthouse says WOW to me because it is big, tall, historic and beautiful.
Wild Foal
My photo called Wild Foal is of a young horse eating grass in the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
I went in an open top Jeep through the beach and sand dunes to see the wild horses that live near Corolla. This horse is one of the wild horses that are descendants from the Spanish mustangs brought by explorers almost 500 years ago. The herd roams free and there only about 100 wild horses in the herd.
I saw this one particular foal by itself eating in a beautiful open area and I thought it was WOW because it lives in the open and can roam anywhere it wants to. It has its all the dunes and beach for its home. By law you can’t get more than 50 feet close to them so my picture is as close as you can get to this amazing beautiful animal.
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We had a GREAT Halloween! Hayley decided to go as something different this year and we put together her costume ourselves. She went as Danica Patrick, the first woman to win a Formula One race. I’m not really a racing fan but Formula One is more interesting to me than NASCAR and Patrick certainly made an impact culturally. We went through about 20 ideas and Danica Patrick was the only one Hayley loved – I’m sure because she is gorgeous that helped Hayley with the decision.
Turns out they sell replica jersey versions of her racing suit (just the top part). That with a hat we got from there, black soccer pants, black underarmor soccer shirt and riding gloves made for one adorable but mean race car driver.
Our friends up the street had a party beforehand so we all went up there for dinner. They did a great job with their garage! I made a green jello Frankenstein hand and encircled it with looser red jello – it was GROSS looking but tasty.
Jeff and Hayley took off to trick or treat with our next door neighbor Wes and their kids Ethan and Mason. We figured Ethan would tucker out sooner so Wes ended up taking him home and Jeff continued on with the girls. Jen and I hung out on her front porch and handed out candy. Of course if you know me, you know I love Halloween. For the 4th year, we handed out glow sticks with our candy – and this year I got Pop Rocks and Pixie Stix. Oh yeah, I rule and you know it! ha!
The kids came back with insanely filled bags, we weeded through them, traded and tossed some out over at Wes and Jen’s. We let the girls play until about 10:30 and finally took the 10 steps to our house and crashed.
**updated note –> Hello to the people who came here from the Danica Patrick fan site that link here!
We decided to pull out all our dog Halloween costumes and dress up the dogs for a few moments the evening before Halloween. I knew they wouldn’t stay in them long so we did it just to be silly for awhile.
We dressed them up in matching polo shirts from Old Navy and then went to the more daring selections of Pirate, Zorro, grass skirt and others.
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We tried a new pancake recipe tonight and everyone gave it a thumbs up. Jeff declared them ‘moister than normal’ and Hayley just ate them with her hands without butter or syrup she loved them so much.
We had a good time making them too. She flipped some herself tonight and was in heaven doing it. When I flipped them up in the air and caught them on a plate, she cheered loudly.
Sometimes we give things funny names, for example Jeff always gets water with ice in a real glass and after a few minutes it is just amazingly ice cold. We end up drinking all his water and driving him nuts. So we started calling it Daddy’s Famous Water. So now we have dubbed these Hayley’s Flapjacks.
So I don’t forget it, I’m posting the recipe here:
2 cups of pancake mix
2 eggs
1 cup of skim milk
1 tsp of vanilla
2 tbsp of sugar
2 tsp of baking powder
(Yes I’m aware this is just a few tweaks of some bisquick recipes but it works for us)
We attacked a pumpkin and carved it up. We used a cool pattern that Hayley picked up called the Mad Hatter and it turned out really well. She thought the inside of the pumpkin was cool, I still think it is gross.
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Jeff’s folks were selected to be on the stands right behind Barack Obama at a rally in Roanoke, VA on Oct. 17th. I collected some photos and videos of them.
Sharen is in light blue with a blue hat, John is in maroon shirt with a maroon hat.
