Pumpkin Day at the Byrd House

We have had a very fun week celebrating Pumpkin day yesterday, aka Halloween. We love Halloween and all the fun dress-up play we get to do. The kid's school usually picks a theme that the kids can dress up to. This year is was your favorite G rated Disney character.

The teachers dressed up like characters from 101 Dalmatians. My brother and sister are there in the photo.


The kids just loved it especially Cruella. She works in the library. She was fabulous!



My children dressed up as ... Walt Disney (Joe's idea including a Sharpe mustache), Brier Rose (sleeping beauty), Alice in Wonderland, Little Red Ridding Hood, and Jeb is simply himself (he dressed up as a Robot on Wednesday and wouldn't wear it again).

We also did the traditional pumpkin carving.


We planned out our pumpkin faces,


drew them on the pumpkins,


had dad carve them out, or ....


carved them ourselves.


Then we took them outside and lit them up with candles.





Instead of going Trick-or-Treating which is pointless when you live in the middle of no where, we stayed home and had some family fun. Joe built us a fire and we roasted Weenies and marshmallows. We tried to make biscuits to wrap around the hot dogs but they turned out nasty. So the dog ate the biscuits instead and we ate the hot dogs.


Joe made roasting sticks for everyone. Thank you go for having such good camping out skills. hee hee


Toshi came over to check it all out and helped Hannah and JEB make sure the fire had plenty twigs, grass and such to keep burning well. No campfire can burn properly if little kids aren't throwing junk on it all the time.


Jeddie simply bunt his biscuit rapped hot dog. It turned out ok though. He peeled off the charred biscuit and ate the warm hot dog inside. :o)




Sorry I couldn't resist the hat. I just love this little hat. He wore it all day yesterday. It was a treat from Vea for being so good at the store while we looked at kitchen cabinets with mom. She made it from a pattern she got off Etsy. It is fabulous for Jeddies poo bald little head and he is so stinkin' cute in it!

Last we came home and made traditional popcorn balls.


We went to our neighbor's house and delivered some of these to celebrate the day. Popcorn balls are my all time favorite Halloween treat, well that or sugar cookies with orange frosting and candy corns.
I hope you have enjoyed fall as much as our family did. Now on to Thanks Giving! My next favorite holiday!

Reunion Fun

OK I have a spare minute this morning to post some of the fun we have been having.

On day one we had some Old World activities for the kids. Each family got the assignment to come up with an activity booth to teach the children something about life in the Middle Ages. It was so much fun. We had Alchemy, Spinning, Heraldry, Shield making, Tunics, and Folk Medicine. Here are some of the photos of the fun we had.


My niece Rebekah is a chemist and she taught the kids about Alchemy. Her booth was always full. She told what basics of chemistry they did know back then. It was so much fun. My sister Mary also was in this booth and she did sun reactive dyes with the kids. I forgot to get a photo of that.

You can see here that she let the kids do experiments. It was really fabulous!


My booth was the Folk Medicine. I am into herbs and so I had several samples of the herbs that they would have used back then and what they used them for and what we use them for today.
They kids loved the fact that the top property of most of the herbs and spices back then was to prevent flatulence. The all giggled. We took some especially fragrant herbs like, mint, lavender, rose petals, and such and made little sachets to wear around our necks. We talked about how most people didn't bath and that you would have these handy to sniff and especially stinky times. They also ward off bugs like lice.


My niece Anna had the kids making Shields. She had lots of information about crests and what the symbols stood for. All the kids had fun painting them. I even noticed many of the adults painting their own that afternoon.

My sister Lil and her husband Doug brought natural fibers and taught the kids how to make yarn with drop spindles.

The kids had so much fun and kept bringing me their bits of string to show me what they made.

My sister Anne (who was in charge of all the activities) and her daughter Rebecca had a booth where the boys could make tunics and the girls made flower garlands for their hair. The boys got to design the front of their tunics with crayon drawings that they ironed in.


The last booth the kids got to go to was Grandma's Nursery Rhymes. Most of our nursery rhymes come from the middle ages and were political statements about their times. The kids had to recite any rhyme they know to her to get a bag of sugared and spiced nuts from her. They were so tasty!

The smart grand kids stuck around and got more nuggets of wisdom from grandma.

My sister Jeanne and her daughter Alisa also had a booth where the kids were making family crests. They are still being finished and are really great but I forgot to take a picture of that.

Here are some more photos of the corsets I made. We have to show off the funness of it all!

I don't know just what Josie was doing that day but she did look impressive.



Jeanne, Alisa and Amanda looking lovely. I have to tell you that I actually made Jeanne's for her last year and she has lost enough weight that she took the back of the corset in 6-8 inches. I am very impressed!


Here is a view of the back of the corsets.


Josie and Jeanne in their loveliness. They made their own skirts.

This one is one of my favorites though. This is little Hannah and it is her 6th birthday today. She is my littlest princess.

Reunion 2008

Since 1999 my family has had a reunion almost every year. The last several have been here in the Midwest so we would be close to my parents. This year is right here.
The theme of the reunion is The Knight's Quest. We all get to dress up in Renaissance festival cloths and play all day.
I contributed to the fun by making corsets for all the women that wanted one.
Here are just a few.

I am off now to George Washington Carver National Monument with the kids. I think we are late. Blogging takes so long.

Damsel In This Dress - Renaissance Festival Corsets

I had to share this. My friend Michelle makes the most beautiful corsets I have ever seen. She sells them at Renaissance Festivals all over the country. You can buy them there or you can get them through her e-bay store or here. She also has a website where you can see all her lovelies.
I got to help her sew up skirts for her outfits this spring and it was so much fun. These make the best costumes ever!! Go check her out!

Halloween Early

We live out in the country so trick-or-treating isn't really very do-able. As a result, I am afraid that we tend to over do it for the kids for Halloween. The school has a party day, the PTO has a festival, the High School provides a safe spot, the church group get together and have a dinner and a trunk-or-treat, and the communities near by have several Halloween parties going on. I used to feel bad that the kids didn't get to do the whole trick-or-treating thing like I did as a kid but have found that they make off with a bigger haul than my husband or I ever did. LOL! I do try to limit what they get and usually end of thowing away a lot of it. I also funnel a lot of it into the treat box for good behavior and special jobs.
I do try to make the kids fun costumes each year. This year, with the help of my friend Michelle, I made some really beautiful costumes for my girls. They are all Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit fans. My oldest wanted to be Aowen from Rohan and the other two wanted to be Hobbits. The costumes were really fun to make and I saved us big bucks. Each costume would have cost me $125 if I hadn't made them myself. They were really fun to do. They are very excited about wearing them to their class parties.


I am glad I won't have to be sewing anyone into their costumes right before the party.