He has risen!

He has risen indeed!  Happy Easter!

Our Easter weekend was filled with, well, Easter stuff.  Also camping stuff.  As we were getting ready to head to the Easter Egg Hunt at our church yesterday, it hit me that Halloween camping trips (click HERE for our 2014 trip) will start booking soon.  Some texts with my best friend, conversations with others, and we've got our plans all set in hopes that we can get our preferred sites on the day booking opens up.

Today was beautiful out.  Husband took advantage of the good weather and climbed up on the roof of the camper to wash and protect it.  I didn't think to take a picture until after he'd climbed down, and there's the obvious window screen.  If I'd gotten a pic of Husband up there, I'd have said something about him rising, too.  The moment passed, the double meaning lost, picture isn't great quality.  Anyway... Husband also got the rest of the camper washed and waxed with some help from Oldest Kid.

Camping season is approaching, prep is starting!  We'll make our first trip next month, and I'm ready to get out there!

Halloween Camping

The Last Hurrah!

Halloween Camping, a tradition our family has come to love greatly, look forward to all year long.  It is also a bittersweet trip because it's almost always our last trip of the camping season living this far north.

We've done big Halloween Campouts at a couple of different state parks (my post for this year's location).  We've also done this trip at Maumee Bay State Park (no post to share about that one, you just get the link to the park).

East Harbor has 2 weekends to choose from for Halloween Camping.  This lessens the immediacy of booking and booking for extra nights that we won't be there due to work and school (cough: Maumee Bay).  Our group booked sites as soon as we possibly could, when reservations opened 6 months before our first night there.  I think we tried to start booking at 6 am and were able to book at 7 am.  Not only were there a plethora of sites to choose from, we got our coveted cul-de-sac sites (ok, so we had to fudge our camper length a little and hope for the best - it worked thankfully!).

Weekend events start on Friday.  Some events repeat both nights.  My kids enjoyed the Haunted Hayride and the Haunted Tunnel.  Nothing too scary for my kids not into scary things.

Hayride stuff during the day time

There was a pet costume contest.  Oscar the dog was dressed at Yoda-wg.  It matched the family Star Wars Theme quite nicely.  Oldest Kid was Princess Leia, Youngest Kid was Darth Vader.  I was Padme.  Husband was Han Solo.  I'd share a picture of us all, but I'm not going to share pics of my kids.  Here's Oscar:

We decorate our campsite with fun Halloween decor.  Except, I'm cheap.  All of our decor comes from the Target clearance sales.  Some people get really into it.  I mean REALLY into it.  My favorite campsite was this Lego campsite solely dedicated to decor.  It was cool - a life size version of an actual Lego set, complete with characters from The Lego Movie.

My kids' favorite part of this trip is trick-or-treating from campsite to campsite.  The loot they bring home is impressive.  I had purchased almost 200 bottles of bubbles, plus had a bit of candy.  Husband was out of stuff to give away well before the kids and I got back from begging trick-or-treating.

Sunday morning, it was time to pack up.  Admittedly, the process of packing up the final trip is a bit emotional to me.  We're not the only only ones to linger a bit longer than normal, taking extra care to pack things up, spend a bit more time talking with friends than getting on the road quickly.  I see other campers doing it, too.

We've had a great camping season.  Halloween Camping is our capstone experience.  Now it's ended and I am sad.  Seven whole months until Camping Season 2015.

Is it camping season yet?

East Harbor State Park

Site C-58

We spent this past weekend at East Harbor State Park in Ohio.  We were there for our annual Halloween camping trip and I'll make another post about that later.

East Harbor is on the shores of Lake Erie, about halfway between Toledo and Sandusky.  I went to high school not too far away from there.  My best friend lives in the Cleveland area.  This is a great meeting point because it's somewhere in the middle.

We've been to East Harbor several times before.  When searching for sites, I HIGHLY recommend paying attention to the sites that state, "This can be a wet site as it is prone to flooding after heavy rains."  That is no joke.  Our first time there?  Our reserved campsite was under several inches of water.  Thankfully it was super early in the camping season and we could easily select a drier campsite.  Still muddy, but not flooded.  When we were there for the 4th of July weekend in 2013, there was rain off and on all weekend.  We couldn't escape the mud and our feet were just filthy.

East Harbor is part of the reason I own rainboots now.

Wet and muck is really the negative side of East Harbor.  There are great things about it, too.  Things that outweigh the muck.

We made a three-night camping trip for this weekend.  We got there shortly before dark, enough time to unhitch and get set up.  Not enough time to do anything much besides that, eat dinner and put our school-tired kids to bed.  We are clearly on the downside of the equinox.

Friday morning, I went for a run first thing.  I was greeted by the sunrise over the bay.  Not a bad way to start the day.  I wound my way through different sections of the park.  We like electricity and we like our dog, so we always end up in Section C.  You can end up in different sections based on your pet and electricity choices.

Once I got back and cleaned up for the day, the kids wanted to ride their bikes over to the Glacial Grooves.  I've been to the Glacial Grooves on Kelleys Island, those are impressive to look at.  The ones at East Harbor State Park?  Not-so-much.  My oldest kid certainly thinks they're cool.  I think I might think more highly of them if I'd not seen the other ones.  A short bike ride later, we were at the grooves.

The sign explaining the history of the grooves.

I'd guess the length is about 1/2 a football field, so a longer distance shot.

A closer shot with the toe of my rain boot to give some size perspective.  You can definitely see the direction that the glacier moved however many years ago that happened.

We did not make a trip to go fishing on this trip, but we've done it from the pier and from a boat.  We've had good luck with catching.

The camp store is nice.  There was a 1/2 off sale on ice cream treats because it's October.  Somehow, the kids wanted ice cream on a 55 degree day.  The grown-ups opted to skip that particular treat ;)

The majority of our remaining time at East Harbor was spent participating in Halloween activities.  Look for that post to come.

Just me, being silly

For my Halloween costume, do I go with silly pumpkins?

Or a not-so-scary witch?

Or a blue sparkly cowgirl?

Maybe a devil?

Probably not Uncle Sam (Aunt Sam?)

I think the winner is Pink Princess

Do you dress up for Halloween, what are you going to be?

Trick-or-Treat Giveaways

Candy, candy, and more candy.  That's what trick-or-treating is all about, right?

My kids get inundated with candy.  They cannot possibly eat all that Halloween candy before we get inundated with Christmas candy.  And we still have Easter candy in the candy jar.  It's October 5th.  The only reason there isn't Valentine candy in there still is because I weeded some out just before the Easter candy came in.

I'm not anti-candy.  I love me some Reese Peanut Butter Cups and Kit Kats.  I've been known to steal those from the candy stash.  And chocolate.  Maybe Nestle Crackles will get stolen not be eaten by my kids.  I may have been distracted by my favorite candy, back on track now.  My kids often get 1 treat a day, either a piece of candy or something else, depends on the day and what's going on.  Some days we have "Candy Free Days."

We've established that there's lots of candy.  With trick-or-treating coming up, I've noticed that my kids enjoy seeing the stuff in their trick-or-treat collection that ISN'T candy.  As a kid, I liked getting pennies in my bag (except we used a pillow case because it was huge and carried everything, unlike those plastic pumpkins).  I did not like getting toothbrushes (how many dentists could have lived in my neighborhood?).  My kids have gotten juice boxes, stuffed animals, rubber snakes, bags of popcorn, glow sticks (except they're always already snapped by the time we get home and therefore useless), plastic jewelry, bouncy balls.

Seeing my kids' enjoyment, I've started in on the "non-candy treats" to give out to trick-or-treaters.

Enter Oriental Trading.  There is tons of stuff that works great for this purpose and the prices are great.  This year, we're giving out little bottles of bubbles.

Some people may say that not every kid enjoys non-candy treats.  I'm ok with that.  Because not every kid like Smarties.  Or Laffy Taffy.  Or other flavored Tootsie Rolls.  Or chocolate (gasp!!).  You can't please everyone.  I don't pretend to do so.

Knowing my kids cannot possibly eat all the Halloween candy that they'll get in the next few weeks, I've got a couple ways to move it along.

1. Our church does a Trunk-or-Treat for the community.  The candy I know that won't get eaten from our Halloween Camping trip gets donated to the first car there when we take our kids to the event.
2. Halloween candy still hanging around when we decorate ginger bread house(s) is free game for decorations.  I always buy gingerbread house kits because I'm kinda lazy about something that will just end up trashed anyway.  Halloween candy adds a way to individualize the houses we've made without buying more candy.

Candy is great and all, we certainly enjoy it.  But there are other ideas, other ways for trick-or-treating and what to do with the candy.

Pumpkin Hunt

On our first Halloween camping trip (was that 4 years ago now?), my BFF had a fun activity for the kids the first night of our trip.

She found a bunch of these ------------------------------>
little pumpkin cups.  I've seen them at numerous stores.  I've also seen them as cauldrons as well.  They're like miniature trick-or-treat containers.  She filled each one with a little fun goodie, like bubbles and stickers and small toys and trinkets.  Nothing expensive.  The goodies were age appropriate for the kids in our group.

While the kids were on one campsite playing with the dads, the moms hid the little pumpkins around another campsite.  The kids loved finding the pumpkins and then showing their friends and siblings what all they got.

Just like an Easter Egg Hunt, the kids went on a Pumpkin Hunt.

Halloween Clearance Shopping

Halloween Camping is our last hurrah of the season.  We go out with a bang, this is one our favorite trips of the year.

Part of the prep for this trip is shopping the clearance sales on November 1.  As I started getting out our Halloween decorations yesterday, it involved a few forgotten surprises.  Halloween earrings.  Pumpkin headbands.  Accessories to make a real pumpkin into Darth Vader Mr. Potato Head.

The kids loved the surprises.

I also have some new outdoor decorations.  We don't decorate outside of our house.  They are solely for our campsite for our Halloween Camping trip.  We can skip the decorations bought in the past that don't work so well, add to what does work well.

As with the stuff I found yesterday, I don't exactly remember what I got at Target last year for the campsite decor.  I'll find out soon enough, right?

I'm also a big dork super cool, I put Halloween Clearance Shopping on my calendar for 8 am on November 1.

Apple Squares

Apple season is upon us.  I currently have a batch of Applesauce in the crock pot.  I'll be getting more apples to make more apple-y things.  The kids do make it hard, they see fresh picked apples and suddenly they're eating 2 and 3 apples each a day.

This time of year doesn't just mean apples, it also means Halloween camping is approaching.  Our Halloween camping trips are always really big group affairs.  I took these Apple Squares one year and got tons of compliments.  I made them at home and served them cold.  A reheat in the oven would work well, but it was cool that trip and the dish would not have stayed warm long.

Ingredients
1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped apple
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts (optional)
2 tablespoons white sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

What to do

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease 9x9 inch pan.  Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, and 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon.  Set aside.
• In a large bowl, mix together melted butter, brown sugar, and 1/2 cup of white sugar with a wooden spoon until smooth.  Stir in the egg and vanilla.  Blend in the flour mixture until just combined, then stir in the apples and walnuts.  Spread the mixture evenly into the prepared pan.  In a cup or small bowl, stir together then remaining cinnamon and sugar; sprinkle over the top of the bars.
• Bake for 25-30 minutes in preheated oven; finished bars should spring back when lightly touched.  Cool in the pan and cut into squares.