October

I have a long (and lame) list of excuses for being absent from blogging for over a month.  But none of them are too exciting so I won't bore you with the details.  I will say that I've really missed it and it does feel good to be back!

Since so much time has passed (and since Christmas is here) I'm just going to sum up our last two months in the next two posts.  First up, October.

Our basement is so close to being done, but we had some setbacks when my car needed a major repair.  S was, however, able to completely get the rock wall up (I don't have a picture of the completed project but the second is pretty close to how it looks right now.)  This means that we were able to get the stove officially installed and we have been able to enjoy some toasty warm fires on bitter cold days.

I asked our photographer for some location recommendations where we could get the urban feeling but that fall would still be recognizable.  She suggested Magna which wasn't even on my radar but it ended up being so perfect!

You can see how our pictures turned out here.

Obviously the biggest part of October is Halloween.  The kids were so excited to decorate the house for Halloween.

Bean's Grandma and Grandpa J grow pumpkins every year so she literally has her pick of the patch.  Boy was able to get into the action this year.

Last year I took the kids to our town's pumpkin festival.  This year I forgot all about it until just a few hours prior.  S was working so I decided to take them after dinner.  Last year the line for the animal train was too long but this year it was short enough that we decided to wait.  Bean said that the Pig was very fast and very bumpy.  Boy seemed a little pensive but acted afterwards like he'd really liked it.

Anytime there are treats and games and cookies, these kids are happy.

Grandma H. continued with her tradition of hosting a pumpkin carving party.  I told her I really appreciate this evening because it's one less thing I have to worry about on a very busy week!  Plus the kids really like it...

I bet you'll never guess what unique costume idea Bean came up with this year...  (You can read more about it on my hobby blog.)

We all went over to Bean's school to watch the Halloween parade.  Because she's in afternoon kindergarten, there are only two classes participating which means the whole parade is over in about a minute and half.  This is a picture of Bean pretending like she doesn't see us.  (Seriously--she put on her stone face and ignored us almost the whole time.)

Being the 'room mom' coordinator, I was able to plan her class party this year.  It was really fun and really easy.  Her teacher gave me a list of moms who were interested in helping and I basically delegated everything away and showed up to help.  It was great.

Bean loved the cookie decorating station.  (I think that was my favorite, too.)

That evening was perfect weather.  I was able to get the quintessential Halloween picture.  (Incidentally, I do have to tell you about Boy's costume at this point.  Bean had said that Boy ought to be a troll this year.  S was supposed to be Olaf and I had grand plans to be Anna...but that didn't happen.  However, as I was going through a bunch of clothes that our friends donated to us, I found this green shaggy monster costume and was able to easily convince Bean that it was a troll costume.  By far the easiest costume I have ever come up with...plus he was so stinkin' adorable.)

I stayed back like I normally do and handed out treats--it's my favorite thing to do!  I had so much fun watching these three head out for a very successful evening of trick-or-treating!