Apple Dunking and Halloween Bashing!

October 31, 2012 By

Saturday was our ward’s annual Halloween party. The youth were in charge, which means as a youth leader I was a part of the planning and implementation.
Pretty much, I have the best calling ever working with these beautiful young women.

Jamie and I wore our annual costumes. I was the pumpkin widow dressed in black (see my shirt) and Jamie was (what else?) a pumpkin.
It’s like art imitating real life. Every. Single. Day.

We just finished reading the 100th Anniversary edition of Wizard of Oz that I bought as a souvenir in Coronado Island. Much to my delight, Hadley shunned the pop culture costumes of many of her peers and opted to be Dorothy.

Bode, on the other hand? He spotted a Mario costume at the thrift store and the begging began. “Bode, you were Mario two years ago. Don’t you want to be _______” and I listed off a number of costumes. Obviously, I lost.

Blurry action shot eating doughnuts on a string

We had a spookiest appetizer/dessert contest so I whipped up a graveyard 7-Layer Dip. I got a ton of compliments on it but it was a result of improvisation. We didn’t have any refried beans so I used Madras Lentils (my fave wintertime lunch) and layered sour cream, cheese, green onions, salsa and guacamole. For the graveyard, I cut and baked some red chile tortillas into tombstones, a cat and a ghost.
I thought I did a pretty good job until I saw my friend Wendy’s entry.
Overachiever.

The young men were in charge of a haunted grove in the forest behind the church.

Teenagers with a real chainsaw = terrifying.

The young women stayed inside and oversaw all the carnival games.

Best. Bean bag toss. Ever.

And then there was the most unsanitary game of them all: bobbing for apples. In sixth grade, I had a Halloween party that will go down in infamy as The Best Party Ever and I still wear my Queen Apple Bobber Badge proudly. When the young women taunted me to do it, I rose to the challenge.

Or rather, bent way, way over for it. Haddie and Bode joined me and I dove in preparing to leave them in my salivated-apple-bobbing wake. When all of a sudden, I was being submerged way way way under. I flew up sputtering, only to realize my own husband dunked me.

It’s a good thing we drove separately; otherwise dude would have walked home.

Haddie ended up being the winningest apple bobber of the night. As it turns out, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

Literally.

Filed Under: Bode, Foodie, Hadley, holidays, Humor, Jamie, LDS, pumpkins Tagged With: ,

How to carve a REAL pumpkin

October 30, 2012 By

I’ve been watching all my friends post pictures of their carved pumpkins on Facebook.

How sweet.

Now, let’s talk about how a REAL pumpkin is carved. Many people ask us what we do with The Great Pumpkin after the weigh-off. The answer is simple: I make Jamie showcase it on our driveway until Halloween. It’s a community attraction and I catch the most random people marveling at it. Last week, it was the garbage man who moved the garbage can beside it  and took a picture. “I told my wife it was as big as a garbage can and she’s not gonna believe it.”

Another sweet man talked to Jamie and then, as if it had given him a new lease on life said, “Thank you sooooo much for growing it.”

Could The Great Pumpkin be as good as therapy?

Though it generally lasts until Halloween, it ain’t pretty after a month of baking in the sun. Pumpkin guts are usually oozing down our driveway, making it a veritable horror show. But this year was different. Jamie’s pumpkin “Christine” has miraculously not shown signs of rotting out so he resolved we were going to carve it for the first time. Have you ever carved a 837-pound beast? Neither had we. Please excuse the blurry pictures; they were taken at night with my iPhone.

We made an event of it by inviting some friends over for FHE. Cookies and hot chocolate with pumpkin spice marshmallows are essential.

Then you get out the power tools. When that doesn’t work, you try a shovel. Once you finally break through the top, you get your first glimpse inside and it was miraculously not rotting out. This almost made Jamie weepy. It was like he was gazing into some fantastical cavern.

Next, you dive in, scoop out the guts and separate the seeds. To those blasphemous people who ask if we eat them: they are dried, sold or traded with other growers.

Entire children were almost lost in the process.

From there, we carved out the face–not an easy process when the skin is almost a foot thick. In fact, the eyes took so long to carve out that I mused to Jamie, “maybe you should make the mouth smaller because the eyes are taking so long. He took one wavering look at me, then back at the pumpkin. “She’s gotta have a big mouth.”

It was like music to my ears.

Filed Under: Humor, Jamie, LDS, pumpkins

Just when you thought pumpkin season was over

October 26, 2012 By

People frequently ask me what Jamie is doing with all his free time now that pumpkin season is over. Here’s the thing: it never really ends. These days he’s obsessing about soil samples, what seeds he’s going to use for next year and once he cuts the pumpkin up next week, he’ll be composting it back into the patch.

There are also the frequent reminders like a friend who sent me this article on SEO: Business Lessons From Pumpkin Hackers because she knows Jamie works in web development and initially wondered if it was authored by him. I forwarded it off to Jamie and got this response:

“I would never refer to myself as a ‘geek farmer.’”

“The Pumpkin Man” is so much more dignified.

Then last night before bed, he did something  I can’t remember him ever doing: he was reading at length on his iPad. If you don’t know his history with reading, he spends all day deciphering  code at his computer so the last thing he wants to do in his leisure time is read. He once said, “I don’t have anything against books. I just don’t like reading them.”

So, last night I was justifiably curious. I queried, “What cha reading?”

“Teaming with Microbes.  Weathering, oxidation, reduction actions of iron and managese minerals and the biochemistry of the decomposition of organic matter are the primary factors influencing soil color.”

“I’m sorry I asked.”

Filed Under: Humor, Jamie, pumpkins

The Great Pumpkin Season: It’s a Wrap!

October 22, 2012 By

Another year, yet another pumpkin season gone by. Between the record-breaking heat, Jamie’s back-breaking work schedule and sloooow pumpkin growth, our hearts just weren’t into it.

Nonetheless, Jamie was ecstatic when he saw this tweet from a woman who was in my session at the Governor’s Tourism Conference. Yep, I mentioned The Pumpkin Man and the Marriage Ref.

Nice to know she was impressed (or not?)

Though the big Jared’s Nursery weigh-off was a few weeks ago, we have always taken the kids’ pumpkin to our local harvest festival.When we arrived, they had a bigger turnout than I’ve ever seen. But then the rain came. And kept coming.

We were all pretty moody so sought shelter stuffing our faces at the new Fuzzy’s Taco Shop. The rain still hadn’t let up so they did the weigh-off in the rain. Because we’re hearty pumpkin growers, right?

3rd place ribbon!
 
The winners

Bill Orchard is one of the great advocates for our community garden and is always very kind to us when we arrive. Overly kind. In fact, he treats that husband of mine like a celebrity. So, I wasn’t surprised about the article he posted. Jamie’s favorite part?

Infamous Giant Pumpkin grower Jamie Johnson was available to sign autographs and give tips to rookie growers. His kids Bode and Hadley took the third prize award. Jamie recently entered his 837-pound giant in Jared’s Giant Pumpkin contest and finished in fourth place.

Sign autographs? Give tips?

I suspect Bill is going to become his agent for the 2013 season.

Filed Under: Humor, Jamie, pumpkins

On inheriting the recessive gene

October 18, 2012 By

Remember this post about banging our heads against the wall a.k.a. attempting to help Hadley with math? Well, it gets better as per this conversation I had with Jamie the next day.

Me: Hadley tried to convince me she’s over it.
Him: Over what?
Me: School. Third grade. She told me she doesn’t need to do homework. I asked her if she wanted to be a third grade dropout.
Him: What did she say?
Me: That third grade doesn’t really matter. It’s only high school and college that count.
Him: Oh.
Me: What?
Him: I was in third grade when I had the same conversation with my mom.
Me: WHAT?
Him: Yeah. I told her I knew everything I needed to know to get through life. Math, how to read, etc. Why should I bother with school anymore?
Me: SO THIS IS YOUR FAULT?
Jamie: Pretty much.

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog
Filed Under: Hadley, Humor, Jamie

I laughed ’til I cried

October 16, 2012 By

This is a must-watch for anyone who has ever struggled in math (or has a child who does). This is a glimpse of what it’s like to help Hadley with math.


Jamie said it’s only hilarious because it’s sadly, sadly, sadly TRUE.

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog
Filed Under: Hadley, Humor, Jamie

What not to say to your Canadian mother-in-law

October 7, 2012 By

Me: “Jamie, I’m talking to my mom about Thanksgiving today. Don’t you have something you want to say to her?”


Jamie: “You’re a month early.”

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog
Filed Under: Canada, Humor, Jamie

And The Great Pumpkin’s Weight Is….

September 30, 2012 By

Yep, 837 pounds! (Check-out Jamie’s blog denverpumpkins.com for specs).

Though last year’s pumpkin weighed almost 100 pounds more, Jamie was pleased with the result. Growers have enormous tape measures and based on the measurements, Jamie’s pumpkin should have weighed about 770 pounds but it went 9 percent heavy.

Look at me with my pumpkin-geek speak. Impressed?

Though there were a few pumpkins with larger circumferences, Jamie passed them to place a surprising fourth.

The kiddos also placed fourth in a somewhat contested children’s division. More on that later (and how Haddie smack-talked the mohawk kid) but they were pleased with their 203-pounder.

When we first arrived, I had a nice woman come up to me who recognized me from my Denver Post articles about Jamie’s pumpkin obsession.

Still trying to figure out if that was a good thing?

And Jamie, of course, is a local celebrity with references to our NBC Marriage Ref appearance being thrown around. Beauty queen Mrs. Littleton even made a celebrity appearance!

Umm, OK.

While Jamie was busy doing his pumpkin business, the kiddos and I delved into the activities at Jared’s Giant Pumpkin Weigh-off and Festival that included a bouncy castle, face painting and balloon animals.

A maze….

 Water balloon sling shots,

And, of course, an obscene amount of oversized pumpkins and vegetables.

Cool pear!
1st place pumpkin

Jamie’s buddy Joe Scherber took first place with a pumpkin that was taping out to more than 1,400 pounds–a new Colorado record. Sadly, it went really light and *only* weighed 1,225 pounds.

Something that made me chuckle: Pumpkins allegedly lose several pounds of weight after they are cut from the vine so many growers wrap bags of water around the stem to help maintain their moisture. Scherber took it a step further and if you look closely at the pumpkin, you can see bags with yellow liquid. The contents? Gatorade.

Who knew pumpkins were athletes?

Following the day’s festivities, Jamie took us out for a celebratory dinner on the deck of Blue Canyon Grill in Golden.

But the true highlight for us all? Driving the streets with an 837-pound pumpkin in tow. People were hooping and hollering at us, delighted to catch a glimpse of such an anomaly. As we waved back at everyone, I marveled at our quirky family where oversized gourds and crazy trips are the norm.

And I couldn’t have been more grateful.

Next time: the smack-talkin’ in the children’s division weigh-off. Oh, the controversy.

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog
Filed Under: Bode, Hadley, Humor, Jamie, pumpkins

The 4th Annual Pumpkin Par-tay!

September 29, 2012 By

It’s been a rough season for the Pumpkin Man. So rough, in fact, that I haven’t gotten the same pleasure out of mocking his favorite pastime.

Don’t get me wrong–I still did it but it just wasn’t as fun.

He generally grows two plants and he lost one early in the season to disease. His other pumpkin “Christine” (creepily lovingly christened after my mom) never really took off with Denver’s record-breaking heat.

Though this pumpkin will likely weigh a couple hundred pounds less than last year’s, she never stopped slowly growing and he was just relieved to have a pumpkin he could take to the scale.

Before our pumpkin party, we posed for annual pictures in the patch.

Because doesn’t every family take pictures with their oversized gourd?

This is the kids’ pumpkin, which I think will be a personal best. Unlike Jamie’s pumpkin (which started out white), theirs is a nice lovely orange. Hadley and Bode are already plotting how much money they can make selling it off.

They’re obviously not the sentimental types, particularly when they’ve been saving for a trampoline for over a year.

As usual, my friends delivered with some fabulous pumpkin recipes–everything from pumpkin strudel to pumpkin dip to cookies to krispies to muffins to cake pops.

Delicious spinach dip in a pumpkin

I’m not one to toot my own horn but I was repeatedly told my “Better than s&x pumpkin cake” was a huge hit. I needed something quick, easy and delicious and this bad boy delivered (recipe here).


Also, don’t judge me for the  name. Because I clearly labeled it so everyone else could.

Of course, the main event of our pumpkin party is the vine cutting and pumpkin hauling. Everyone made their way to the back and stood enthralled.

It cracks me up how our friends keep coming back year after year but I’m sure glad they do. Several rookies were present and duly impressed.

If you’ve never been to a Great Pumpkin Par-tay, the first step is to tie a rope around the bottom of the pumpkin and make sure the lifting straps are positioned just right before the forklift lifts it off the bed of sand.

As soon as it is airborne, Jamie needs to check underneath to ensure there are no cracks (which mean disqualification in competition). I’ve heard horror stories of growers who slaved all season long, only to finally lift the pumpkin to transport it and realize the entire bottom had rotted out.

Fortunately, that has never happened to Jamie; it would be ugly to see a grown man cry.

Because the kids’ pumpkin weighs significantly less, a few guys were able to transport it with a lifting tarp.

Though this picture is fuzzy because it was taken with my iPhone at night, it needs to be included. Why? Solely because there are FOUR GROWN MEN hauling it to the car and Jamie will make ‘lil ‘ol me take it out with just him.

Translation: I am equal to three grown men.

I was grateful so many friends came out for the party because I know many had conflicts. Earlier in the day, I tweeted out:

The school’s fundraiser or travel are NOT good reasons to miss our infamous pumpkin party. Pregnant neighbor getting induced? She gets a bye.

Because I’m generous like that.

P.S. Baby’s middle name had better be “great” or “pumpkin.”

Stay tuned for details of the big weigh-off, my better than s&x cake trauma and the explosion that happened mere moments before the party started.
================

Can’t get enough of the Great Pumpkin Parrrrrr-Tay? It has greatly evolved over the years.

Check out:
* 2011
*2010
 *2009 The Year That Wasn’t (when the tornado took out The Great Pumpkin)
* 2008 Our 1st Annual Fete!

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog
Filed Under: Humor, Jamie, pumpkins

Not my cup ‘o tea

September 28, 2012 By

Airing out the archives. Here’s another post in my draft folder I wrote on May 9 but never published.

On Monday, I did a segment on 9News for Mother’s Day. I had several products I was showcasing, as well as some ideas for homemade gifts.

The problem with homemade gifts is you need to make them. At home. Yourself.

So, I sat down with the kiddos and we made some cute Popsicle flowers and a footprint stool. I was juggling a bunch of others things so as usual, crafting was stressing me out.

Jamie walked up to me. “Don’t be offended but….why are you doing crafts?”

Offense taken.

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog
Filed Under: 9News, Humor, Jamie
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