Homestead Halloween

Next door to the Homestead is a recreational Cottage Camp, a small, 5 cottage operation run by a lovely couple that took it over late last year.  They also have 4 lovely little girls….Melanie, Annie, Piper and Mira.  Melanie is the oldest at 7 and Mira the youngest who is getting close to 3.  They are well-behaved kids who absolutely adore fishing as much as their parents do.  Watching them charge out onto the dock with their miniature fishing poles in hand, and seeing their excited, happy faces when they ‘land the big one’ (usually a 3″ bluegill or rockbass) this past summer was priceless.

They also are very adept at catching minnows and storing them in buckets all day until their parents tell them its time to release them back into the lake so they have something to catch tomorrow (catch and release being taught at such a young age is an important lesson learned in conservation).

As much as the girls enjoy their ‘cottage living’ lifestyle, it does come with challenges living so far out from the nearest city/town.  There are about a dozen cottages/homes on the road and not all of them have people living in them year round.  Us included as we will be closing up the Homestead sometime in December until we return around mid-March.

With not many neighbours, the girls are limited in their trick or treating ventures.  Since Halloween falls on a Wednesday this year, we will not be here either as we will be back home during the work week.  But I wanted to make the girls first Halloween here a memorable one. 

Inspiration came in the form of the typical, Halloween, trick or treat bag.  Only on a much smaller scale.  Created from leftover Quilter’s Fat Quarters I had stashed in my sewing room, I whipped up 4, small bags to hold some treats for them with the added bonus of the girls being able to re-use the bags to hold any other treasures after their treats were eaten (hopefully not the frogs they chased during the summer).

With girls being girls and liking all things cute and cuddly, I used a kitten print pattern and a contrasting upper band.  Keeping all four bags the same was the main goal to avoid potential arguments of who likes what fabric better.  Complete with name tags so no one gets confused as to whose is whose.  Except maybe for Mira, as I don’t think she can read yet.  Her mother will have to referee if she insists one of her sister’s is actually hers.

Hopefully this makes up for less than stellar door knocking that awaits them.  I am looking forward to seeing their faces when we drop them off this weekend and hope they enjoy their first Halloween in their new surroundings. 

As for everyone else, hope you all enjoy a Safe and Happy Halloween!

 

8 thoughts on “Homestead Halloween

  1. You are so sweet to think about these little girls. My step-mother made Isabellah a bag years ago that she used as her “purse”. It then became a catch all holding all kinds of treasures and then stashed to the back of the closet.

    This past weekend, she was home and guess what went

  2. Ooops…dang phone.. anyway it went back to college with her. Moral of the story, you’re never to old to be in touch with your childhood. That’s what you’ll have done for these sweet kids.

    • Isn’t that amazing what kids tote around as adults? That reminds me…I have something from my childhood still to this very day…look for a blog post next week on it 😀

  3. Awe, Deb that is so sweet of you. Rural Halloweens can be different for the younguns. We used to hit about 10-12 houses and the boys would lug home more candy, cookies and juice boxes than they could eat/drink. It took all night to hit those few houses as we visited at each neighbour. Then the boys decided to go to “town” one year with their friends. It was an eye opener, they got 1 or 2 pieces of candy/house, no pop, no homemade goodies. The few cookies they did get, had to be tossed as I was unsure where they came from-no name on the baggies. They were in shock and were back rural trick or treating the following years until they were old enough to hit town just for shits and giggles.

    • I guess that is the only ‘good’ thing about rural door knocking, you know all your neighbours and you can trust what they are giving to your kids. A great place to take the kids is to a Seniors apartment building, I would dress up and give out the candy and hubby would take the kids to two buildings around the corner…man, did they ever get lots of loot there. The old folks adored seeing all the kids in costumes, I think they looked forward to it more than the kids! 🙂

  4. This year, they have conned me into doing a Halloween party on Sat night, bon fire, music and I need to make up some goulish treats and a few decorations. Should be fun, I have not planned a large Halloween bash since I was a scout leader and that seems like eons ago.

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