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Monthly Archives: October 2011

Halloween 2011

Happy Halloween!! 🙂

This year, we celebrated with two of our favourite fall events — The Dunbar Haunted House and pumpkin carving!

Len always says that the haunted house is the one event that he always looks forward to every fall; when the summer ends and he begrudgingly goes back to work, his one consolation is that soon it will be time for scaring ourselves silly at the haunted house. 🙂

I’d say he looks a little scared already… 😛

I’d say Minnie is too:

But I don’t think Ryo scares easily:

Me, I saved up a year’s supply of screaming for this night.

This year’s theme was “Barbaric British Columbia”:

The picture above is a hint of the funniest display room in the haunted house (we weren’t allowed pictures inside); it was London Drugs being vandalized and looted from by rioters. AWE.SOME. Another personal favourite of mine was the Tax-Payer’s Hell.

And the biggest laughs of the night came when we got interviewed on camera while in line. When asked what was our biggest fear going into the haunted house, Len replied, “peeing my pants!”

But we survived with our bladders more or less intact, and it was a great way to get into the Halloween spirit!

Then last night, we had our annual Pumpkin Carving Party! I cannot describe or explain just how much I love pumpkin carving. For me, it is what the haunted house is for Len. I look forward to it starting every September, and spend weeks, days, ok fine, hours (I’m a procrastinator afterall), thinking of the perfect image to carve.

This year, I had so much fun coming up with our Halloween-inspired eats for the night!

During the course of the evening, we consumed:

  • Pumpkin Juice, which I made using this recipe. I wasn’t entirely convinced that I’d like the taste, but it was a hit! The only thing I changed from the original recipe was I omitted the white pepper (cuz I didn’t have any), and added a pinch of ground cloves. Also, I didn’t strain it cuz I was too lazy; the juice was a bit thicker, but not pulpy. It tastes somewhere between pumpkin pie and apple cider.

 

  • I-Had-Too-Much-To-Drink Veggie Platter:

 

 

  • Indian Shepherd’s Pie, inspired by Mama Pea’s recipe from her cookbook. But mine wasn’t vegan, obviously, as it had turkey in it. I was “cooking on instinct” yesterday (aka too lazy to measure anything), so I will post that recipe another time when I’m feeling more disciplined. (I also failed to snap a picture cuz hunger took over)

 

  • Two yummy squash dishes brought by Kanata: Vanilla and Orange Yams, and Kabocha. (again, no picture–see above)

 

  • Haunted Forest (aka steamed broccoli)

 

  • Halloween Cake Balls! I’ve been wanting to try my hand at these forever now, and we had so much fun decorating them. I pretty much followed Pioneer Woman’s instructions exactly, although mine did not turn out nearly as cool as hers did. I found I had a lot of trouble getting the coating on smoothly, and we could have benefited from more variety in decorating tools. But oh, did I mention how good and positively addicting these were?? I won’t mention just how many of these balls I consumed yesterday…

 

  • Cookies, Ice cream, and Pumpkin Pie!

 

It’s really a wonder any of us could move enough after dinner to carve our pumpkins. That and we were distracted by The Amazing Race! (Is anyone else loving this current season as much as I am? Especially in the first couple of episodes, I really enjoyed how the clues were more vague and challenging. This show is another one of my favourite things about fall.)

But carve we did, and here are our creations:

Jen’s “Dawn of the Dead”:

Len’s was Starcraft-inspired:

Min’s was cheerful and classic:

Mine was The Hunger Games mockingjay:

And Kanata’s amazing fish:

Altogether now (minus Jen’s cuz she had to leave earlier):

On another Halloween note, have y’all seen the Halloween Google Doodle this year? If not, check out the google page–so cool! And here’s an interesting look at the behind-the-scenes for the doodle:

Hope you all have a safe and fun Halloween!!

 

Posted by on October 31, 2011 in Hanging Out

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Nine Years

On October 12, 2002, I wrote in my diary, “a new chapter in my life has begun.” That was the night of my first date with Len.

We had gone to a movie (Lilo and Stitch 🙂 ), and afterwards, I suggested we take a walk down to Spanish Banks. I vividly remember a few things from that walk. I remember the crisp, cool night air and clear night sky as we made our way down to the beach, hand in hand. I remember Len telling me about his wish to someday visit Cathedral Grove on Vancouver Island (which we did visit on our “mini-moon” to Tofino). I remember tripping over my own feet and only managed to not crash head first because I was holding onto Len’s hand. And I remember feeling pretty mortified but could not stop laughing. I guess you could say I took the whole “head over heels” thing rather literally. 😉

We finally shared our feelings for each other down at the beach while sitting on a rock by the water. A little fumbling, both a little shy, but so sweet. I wrote in my diary that “it was a magical night”. That very spot on the beach is also the place where Len proposed to me 5 years later.

Oh, and guess what Len uttered after our first kiss? (Those of you who were at our wedding might remember this little piece of trivia)
Was it:
a) “Whoa!”
b) “Holy smokes!”
c) “Not too bad, not too bad!”
d) he was speechless

If you guessed c, you’d be correct! Bwahaha! 😀 Oh, that goofy husband of mine!

It is hard to believe that was 9 years ago. What a wonderful adventure it’s been to explore the world and life, in all its joy and sorrow, together since then. So much fun, so much growth and learning, and so much love.

Happy Anniversary, dearest.

 

Posted by on October 12, 2011 in Adventures, Thoughts

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