The Kassel Family Project Life 365

The Chili Master is at the stove!  Bring on Halloween, great friends, great food, and pumpkin beer!

It only took me about eight months, but I finally talked Laura into a haircut.  She loves her hair really long, but it was really looking scraggly.  It is so much better after the cut and she even said, “Mom, I need to get it cut more.  It just looks and feels so much better.”  Success!

Since Halloween is only a few days away, we spent the afternoon putting up our outside decorations.  Our big spider and some of her babies have officially returned!  It just isn’t Halloween around here without her.

We spent the evening carving jack-o-lanterns.  First, Laura and John drew their faces.  John is obsessed with multi-eyed pumpkins and Laura decided we needed a Harry Potter-themed pumpkin.

Then, it was time to perform pumpkin murder!  Most people refer to this as cutting the opening in the top and scooping out the inside.  We call it pumpkin murder and this also happens to be my favorite part.

Once the insides were cleaned, Andy drew the faces on the pumpkins and helped the kids do the carving.  Andy ended up doing most of the carving, but the kids get a little better at it every year.

We talked John out of a five-eyed pumpkin, so he “settled” for three.  He loves it!

I think Laura’s pumpkin is great!  Andy used toothpicks to hold the lenses in place.

Finally, we placed the jack-o-lanterns on our front porch.  We are almost ready for Halloween!

We spent the weekend at Camp Hohn for John’s last Cub Scout Pack campout.

We had a great time!  Despite being cold overnight, the weather was beautiful on Saturday and perfect for camping.  Everyone really had a great time.

The boys went on a hike around Camp Hohn and spent time with their individual dens.  As always the food was great and it is always fun to see the different ways that it is cooked at each campout.

The highlight of the campout for me (and a lot of other people) was the flag retirement ceremony.  It was great to see all my scouts participate.

The boys learned how to properly cut an American flag for retirement.  Between all the flags, Pack 2 retired ten American flags and one Missouri flag.

I am really proud of all the boys for taking this so seriously.  They were amazing and showed complete respect as each piece was placed in the fire for burning.

Once the fire burns out, the boys will bury the ashes, but will keep the grommets from the flags for their lanyards.  It was a really great campout and I am having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that this is John’s last one.  He moves up to Boy Scouts in February.

The warning on the package when you buy a bean bag refill…

Sometimes, you just need a solitary ride.