Week 4: I love Halloween
I love Halloween. I love costumes and dress-up. I love getting to be a little weirder than usual. I love scary movies and TV shows. I love pumpkin carving, fall colors, big, warm sweaters with a book and some coffee or tea. I love bike rides in the cool air and I love when the boys still get really excited about the decorations coming out and the things we get to bake. And I love my husband’s tolerance of all of this. He is not a big Halloween fan, nor a costume wearer at heart. He’s a good sport though and let’s me be a big kid. This last weekend we did up Halloween. It was our first Saturday in a while with no commitments, so we made a day of it. Early in the morning, we headed to the Downtown Des Moines Farmers Market. The boys wore their costumes (much to their chagrin, there weren’t many other costume clad kiddos there) and trick-or-treated the booths. The Des Moines Farmers Market is a magical place to me already, so when you get to see some of the adults partaking in the Halloween fun, it just makes it that much more enchanting. Last year, one of the booths baked delicious pumpkin bread in the shape of heads and had them hanging around the roof of their tent. I get such a kick out of that kind of thing.
The grocery store near our home, does cooking classes for kids around the holidays. They are fun, semi-healthy snacks, and come at a good price. Our family enjoys cooking together regularly. Sam commented the other night while cutting up some carrots alongside Jeff cutting peppers and me cutting onions, “I love this. I just really love when we do this together.” So do we buddy. Here are a few snack ideas HyVee provides on its website: https://www.hy-vee.com/recipes-ideas/recipes?q=halloween+snack&sortBy=relevance
Our last adventure for the day was the big one we had planned for the week: Trick or Treating at Center Grove Orchard. We thoroughly enjoy Center Grove. We get season passes most years, but I have to admit, we got there and I audibly groaned. We had to park in a lot I didn’t even know existed it was so far out. We made it inside and there were Disney-length lines for everything (ok that may be an exaggeration, but I don’t enjoy lines, so this was my comparison.) We stayed for a couple of hours and didn’t see half the farm and the trick or treating aspect was practically non-existent. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t this. We did get our pumpkins (though they were out of wheel barrows so Jeff trekked all the way out with Ben’s enormous pumpkin on his shoulder and each of us carrying one of the others.) My suggestion, maybe skip the costume weekend. I heard others lamenting the same “yeh, we didn’t realize this was this weekend.” As for Center Grove itself, don’t skip it the rest of the season. It is a great place to take a family, during the week especially. There are giant slides, a corn pool, a train in a sweet little pasture by the woods, corn maze, tractors, bounce pillows, and my favorite, the farmyard. I just can’t get over those sweet little baby goats! Some years they do a pumpkin run to benefit families with need for help due to medical costs, etc. They started goat yoga this year, which we didn’t make it to, but I have been wanting to try for years, because goats and yoga combined sound just perfect to me. They also have a really great breakfast with Santa. Sometimes, however, we learn when it’s time to bail. This weekend, we realized we were done, we were tired and Jeff could still make it in time to watch the Iowa game, so we bailed. It was a good, restful decision. We will definitely be back to Center Grove, but for us, costume weekend won’t be our thing.
Here are some other things we’ve done for Halloween:
Living History Farms Trick or Treating – We don’t get to Living History Farms enough. Ben still remembers the time we watched them harvest broomcorn and make brooms out of it when he was so small, Sam hadn’t even arrived yet. Jeff and I have attended their 1900 farm dinner. It was such a delightful experience with a carriage ride, an authentic dinner that was incredible, and a tour of the farm and its workings. Ben and I have gone to their photography weekend a couple of times. If you are an aspiring or even experienced photographer, this is a great day of classes to learn or bone-up on all different skills with the experts from Christian Photo and Tamron. Jeff, my father-in-law and I also did the off-road race one year. I will definitely be back for that. Seven miles of jogging through wooded trails, over hills, and muddy creeks. For Halloween, the kids trick or treat through the old town, ending with horse-drawn carriage rides, a spooky story in the barn, and games on the lawn. Fair warning, there is usually a long line to get in, but they typically have police cars to tour and it’s fun to look around at all the costumes and talk to new people along the way.
Spooky Science at the Science Center of Iowa – By now you know, we are huge Science Center fans, they do this holiday well also. Last year, they had demonstration tables set-up around the Science Center with all kinds of experiments and informational talks taking place. Ben asked a lot of questions of the visiting science students from all over the country. We came home having learned quite a few new things and with a desire to experiment. We tried dry-ice smoke filled bubbles, which went perfectly with Ben’s scientist costume.
Night Eyes at Blank Park Zoo – We have not experienced this first hand. We have been told by many it’s hard to see the animals and most are sleeping, people go to see the decorations and trick or treat. Our love for the animals brings our family to the zoo for many other things, so we’ve skipped this one so far.
Trick or Read – Our library does this event every year and we never miss. They have a craft, non-food trick or treating, It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown playing, Halloween storytimes, and this year they added a portion in Hatch (the library’s maker space) with green screen photos.
Uptown Ankeny Trick or Treat – this was our first year for this event. It was really entertaining. We ran into lots of little friends, peeked into the new shops, got Porchlight coffee, Firetrucker beer samples, and just had a generally enjoyable time strolling through Uptown.
Reiman Gardens – I heard from a teacher-friend this year, they like to go to Reiman Gardens to see them light something like 75 jack-o-lanterns in the garden. She said it was a fun experience for her younger kids. I think this sounds enjoyable for all ages.
Salisbury House Mysteries of the Castle – This is an event we would really like to attend. Last year, I believe we were planning to go, but due to weather conditions, it was cancelled. It appears the events have now been moved indoors to avoid this complication.
Happy Halloween ghosts, goblins, and ghouls!
