Happy Halloween!

We had so many seeds from all our pumpkin carving that we made a huge batch of roasted pumpkin seeds.

They're delicious!

And looking at the jack o'lanterns all lined up makes me feel soooo happy:

Hoping you all have a Happy Halloween!

A Day at the Apple Orchard

This weekend was MEA, so teachers had Thursday and Friday off. Hooray; a four day weekend! Lots of fall-ish activities happened this weekend, but we started it off with a trip to the apple orchard on Thursday.

Knitting in the car on the way to the orchard.

We went to Aamodt's Apple Farm, in Stillwater, MN.

Unfortunately, we were past the 'pick your own' season. But there was plenty to see and do there, anyway.

There were goats to pet...

And fabulously delicious apple treats to eat (and drink)...

Apples to bring home...

As well as apple donuts...

And apple cider...

We also brought home apple cookies and goat cheese. Yum!

It was a great way to start off the long weekend.

Farmers' Market Bounty

First up: strawberry cheesecake gelato.

I was invited to dinner at the house one of my kindergarten students this past week. Her mom cooked an amazing dinner, and for dessert she served this gelato. It was so good that when I was at the Farmers' Market today I had to pick up a pint. I can't believe I never got it before! Delicious. It's from Simply Gelato.

I love brussels sprouts! I have a fantastic recipe for them that I need to share with you. Maybe later this week?

Finally: squash and pumpkins. The squash is for dinner sometime this week. As for the pumpkins - next weekend will be spent carving them and roasting the seeds. Yum!

Fall - Outside and In

Outside:

Photos from our walk the other weekend.

Gorgeous lighting...

Gorgeous colors...

Along the Mississippi.

And inside:

The other day one of my kindergarten students came in holding something behind his back. He pulled this leaf art out:

...and said "This is for you for being the best teacher." Aw! I hung it in the window of our classroom.

And a fall project:

All four kindergarten classes created a collage mural based on The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats, only we called it The Windy Day to match the season.

Each class made leaves in a different way. I had my students make handprint leaves, which we cut out and added to the mural:

Looks a little busy in the photo, but it's super cute. The kids love seeing all their work up in the hall!

And just yesterday, I got another fall gift from one of my kiddos:

An apple for her teacher! So sweet.

October is Shaping Up to be a Good Month

Wow, another fantastic weekend here, with absolutely gorgeous weather. A little more summery than I might like for October (fall's my favorite time of year!!), but beautiful, nonetheless.

I started out the day on Saturday going on a home tour in my neighborhood with my mom. There were ten homes on the tour, and they were all ones that had had some remodeling or major renovations done to them. It was really interesting to see, and some of the homes were so beautiful!

Unfortunately (but understandably) we were not allowed to take photos of the homes, so you'll have to make do with some of the fall photos I snapped as we were walking between houses.

The maple in my yard.

Saturday afternoon and evening was spent at the St. Paul Art Crawl. I went with my guy, and we had such a good time. We had dinner at the Black Dog Cafe, and then went on to see the art.

One of the things that I had read about ahead of time was the art vending machine, which I really wanted to make sure I got to, so it's where we headed first:

A number of different artists made small, cigarette-pack-sized, original pieces of art. The art was then put in this vintage cigarette vending machine. For $5 you could purchase a 'token':

You popped your quarter into the machine, pulled the knob for the artist you wanted:

And out came your mini original work of art!

They had examples by each artist on display, but the one that you got was a surprise in terms of the details.

This was the first one that I got out of the vending machine. It was so much fun, I couldn't resist getting one more!

I chose another one by the same artist. I thought the bunnies were so stinkin' cute. (Sorry, no link for the artist. I simply cannot find her online anywhere! When/if I do, I will add it in).

My guy chose this one, called Penelope:

Pretty darn cute, too.

At the next gallery we went into, I was immediately taken with this display:

I love, love, love the style of this artist, DC Ice.

She was so nice and friendly. We got to talking for a bit, and I learned she had illustrated several children's books, including this one which I just couldn't leave without:

She even signed it for me:

I also bought one of her works of art that was on display (it was so, so hard to choose just one):

Most of her pieces had really interesting/funny/unique titles. This one, entitled 'Chlorine Dog,' was not as long or funny as most of the others. But she told us the background story to this painting and the title, and then it became very interesting, and extra-special.

A studio/workspace in one of the galleries.

Another place we stopped by was Play by Play Theater Bookstore. We really just happened to stumble upon it when we were going from art studio to art studio. But I was so pleased to find it! It used to be at a different location, and I loved going there. When it closed down, I assumed it had gone out of business. But I talked to the owner last night, and she said that she had needed to move buildings because the owner of her previous location had sold the building. All her things for the store had been in storage for months, but she had finally recently re-opened it in this new location. It was quite serendipitous that we happened to find it!

Play by Play

And finally, the last piece of art from the evening:

This is by an artist named Chris Shockley. I fell in love with this the instant I saw it! So very Coraline. :) Love those wooden button eyes! This one is destined for my craft room.

Wow, that was a lot. I actually had more from this weekend that I wanted to share with you, but I think it will have to wait. I've gone on long enough for now!

One last thing I want to try to do this weekend, but I don't know if I can stay up for it on a school night - the finale to Mark Mallman's 78 hour show. Yes, that's right, he's playing for 78 hours straight, and it's all ending tonight. He has a lot of wonderful local musicians joining him. I'd love to see part of it; we'll see if I make it. (If he can play 78 hours nonstop, you'd think I could stay up a little late on a Sunday...)

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend wherever you are!