Old Lady in the Woods

We Gathered with some friends this evening to celebrate Halloween and Samhain.  We set up a magical place in the forest part of our land, with candles and jack-o-lanterns lighting the way.

This was an early set up each family brought 6 more Jack-o-lanterns and we added more candles so when night fell it was a warmly lit little patch in the forest.

We told the children the story of the old lady in the woods, so the collected offerings to add to her magic broth to feed the forest creatures during the dark half of the year. In return for their thoughtfulness they were gifted with honey sticks from the bees and beautiful crystals from the ore gnomes.

There was some Fay Folk lurking about 

I was able to snap a picture of this lovely fairy before he darted off into the woods.

and another little fairy spotted!

The Children water colored printer paper which we made into lanterns to light their way into the dark forest.

Water colors drying for our lanterns

A few of the lanterns we made in the daylight, they were just to hard to photograph in the night.  I took the yarn handles off of them and will use them with LED tealights as nightlights in Kiera's room

"Follow, Follow, Follow Me"  Into the woods we go

The Green Man made a special appearance to hand out treats to the children

Investigating our treasures

We shared a great fall feast picnic style with a mixed green salad topped with roasted pumpkin seeds, a warm bowl of pumpkin chili, with a side jalapeno corn fritters and savory pumpkin pancakes, and finished with a delicious pumpkin cake.  It was a magical evening indeed!