Fall, birthday party, and Halloween. Also my midterm grade.

I love October. That's when, at least for me, the very best part of the whole year starts. I love autumn (especially here in Texas, where autum MIGHT mean a break from the blistering heat, and a little opportunity to sit outside without your skin crisping up off your head or mosquitoes doing the rhumba up your shins.) It means I'm planning a big ol' birthday party, buying presents, thinking about Thanksgiving dinner and wondering how I'll decorate for Christmas. AND there's Halloween. Zoe has been, in order, a woodland fairy, Carmen Miranda, a floral fairy, and a retro Jane Jetson-type space girl. (Kelly, I had to laugh, because Madonna was one of my choices, too, but Zoe's too old and has too many of her OWN OPINIONS to let me decide what she'll be anymore. Big, hairy rats.) I will, of course, now slather this blog with photos of the above events.

Oh, and before I forget, I got an A on my midterm. Came as a pretty big shock to me because I was expecting more of a B-ish type grade. I rock. Seriously.

Anyway. . .

Around these parts, it wouldn't be fall without our annual trip to the pumpkin patch at Sweet Berry Farms, about 45 minutes away. They have buttloads of stuff to do--pumpkin painting, face painting, a corn maze, horseback rides, hayrides, games, you name it. Plus you get to pick a pumpkin for carving.

I was surprised and pleased that this year, when she painted her pumpkin, she chose colors other than black, which was what her first pumpkin looked like. I suppose black is apropos, but it just didn't seem very kid-like. Well, it was kid-like if the kid is Tuesday Addams. This photo makes it look like I wasn't dying from the heat, but I was. (You can't tell because I'm BEHIND the camera, see) but it was just way too hot to be October. However, I'm willing to take "too hot" instead of "snow." "Snow" would just suck.

Pony ride! She sat on top of that horse hollering about how fun it was, much to the amusement of the woman leading the horse. I had to explain that we were city girls, and didn't own horses, and that it was Zoe's first real ride.

So the birthday party descended on us and I was actually ready! Our theme was Monsters, and so I undertook to make some monstery snacks and treats. First, the fruits and veggies:

In the back are green apple, peanut butter and slivered almond "monster mouths." In front, celery filled with cream cheese, and covered with little bandages of deli turkey to make mummies. The eyes are made of bits of dried currants. I fear I ended up making them mostly for show, though, because not too many got eaten. I think this may be because they had actual vegetables involved, or because they were just plain weird looking. At any rate, I thought they were cool. So cool, in fact, that they warranted a photograph.

This is one of the spider pizzas I made. (Before baking.) They were just cheese pizzas made with refrigerated dough, jarred pizza sauce and an industrial-size sack of mozzarella. I made the spiders out of Pillsbury garlicky breadsticks in the tube. Everyone thought I was so creative! Got the idea from a magazine, so it was someone else's creativity, but I didn't mention that. Those garlicky breadsticks are really good, by the way. They remind you how good they are every time you burp, though, for the next 24 hours.

The day's entertainment was Staci Gray, the Austin-based kid's entertainer who Zoe thinks is too cool for school. As you can see, she was able to keep a roomful of a dozen four-year-olds not only occupied, but actually involved, so that the adults could sit around and talk to each other. There was quite a bit of dancing, not a little bit of yelling, and very often, one could hear Zoe hollering out to the crowd that "This is my favorite song!" She said that about all Staci's songs. But really, her REAL favorite is Tom Tom T-Rex.

I absolutely HAD to include this photo, because I didn't notice until just this morning what's going on in it. I thought it was a cute picture of Tennyson, on the left, really dancing up a storm. But look to the right of Tennyson. Zoe is in the off-white and burgundy dress. It's hard to tell, but all her hands and feet are off the ground. The girl is in mid-air. This is an integral part of her dance style, this leaping up into the air to land on her knees or bottom in a way that looks to me to be horribly painful, but apparently isn't.

Four of the six types of cupcakes I made for the party. These involved actual Wilton cake decorating stuff--pastry bags and tips and one of those cool frosting spatulas that make frosting a cake or cupcake about a MILLION times easier than with a dinner knife! Who knew? So--three-eyed monster, monster with wheaty hair, fuzzy green tongue monster, and spider in web. Coconut, M&M's, Shredded Wheat cereal, Fruitabu fruit leather, black licorice, candy corn, marshmallows--you name it. It was a carnival of candy and sugar, and one mommy told me it looked like the cover of a magazine. Indeed it did. That's where I got the ideas! Naturally, I stayed mum about that.

And also this guy. (I forgot to group him with the other four.) The one design I didn't get a photo of was a green cupcake with a cookie stuck in it with RIP piped onto it, and rock-colored Jelly Bellies around it with more piped grass to look like a tombstone in a graveyard. I'll be honest with y'all--I was so impressed with myself I can hardly express it, and I hope someday Zoe looks back fondly on the birthdays her mom threw for her. When she's 16 and hates me, maybe she'll remember this little cupcake.

And finally, Halloween. This costume was a Grade-A pain in the ass to make, but it turned out SO very cute, it was worth it. She's already telling me she wants to be a belly dancer next year, which should be completely painless in comparison. The party line is that she was an alien, but I lean more toward a Jane or Judy Jetson type space girl. (With antennae, of course.)

MY FAVORITE MARTIAN!

I hope she's your favorite, too!