Maxdon

Halloween Chaos

Our house was full of friends and fun on Halloween night. Plus, our neighborhood has truckloads of trick-or-treaters that swarm in for candy. What I'm getting at here is that I never got a good photo of Sarah in her costume, and I'm blaming it on the chaos of the night.

On to the costume...

A few months ago, Sarah found a Snow Princess costume and swore that it was the only costume for her. Her perfect Halloween costume! She paraded around our house in that costume at every opportunity.

Then around the time of her school's Fall Festival a couple of weeks ago, she started mumbling about wanting to be a witch instead. I was having none of that. I made her dress as a Snow Princess for the festival. I paid a hard earned $14.99 for that outfit, and she was going to wear it. Darn it! Reluctantly, she donned the outfit but adamantly refused to pose for a photo.

Last week, somehow, she got her dad into a costume store, and out they came with a witch costume for her and a knight costume for him. Sigh... So much for my $14.99.

On Halloween, Sarah was in full witch gear early in the afternoon buzzing with excitement. Before heading out with her buddies to trick-or-treat, we snapped a quick photo. But that's all the proof I have of her witch-hood. And I never photographed the knight.

But, it doesn't really matter. Those kids had a blast out begging for candy and a ball of fun handing out mounds of treats at our house. A very good night for ghouls and girls.

Pumpkins or Will This Halloween Madness Ever End?

Pumpkin carving. That's what Sarah's begging pushed me to take on a couple of nights ago.

This is what we started with. (See the mound of dirty dishes in the background. Those are just props. I would never have mounds of dirty dishes in my house. Never. I just wanted to make you feel better about yourself. You're welcome.)

We then cracked open the pumpkins and scraped.

And scooped. (The messy counters in the back, also props. I know my perfection can be intimidating.)

After taking orders from the kid about the exact face that the pumpkins should have, I cut into the fruit.

Here's the final result. (The lights are off, because I didn't want you to see the way that my floors shine without a trace of dog hair. Anywhere.)

But the best part of a pumpkin are the seeds - delicious, roasted and salted seeds! I pluck them with my perfectly manicured nails.

We've Got Spirits, Yes We Do...

I'm so not the decorate-your-house-with-cutesy-holiday-stuff kind of gal. Oh, but kids. Kids make you do all sorts of ridiculous things that you just normally wouldn't do. Take Halloween for example.

Sarah is pumped about Halloween. And after taking a stroll around our decked-out-for-Halloween neighborhood, she declared that we needed to decorate our house. Pronto! But, she was also adamant that our decorations should not be too scary.

One trip to Target, 24 stuffed ghosts and one mama on a step ladder for a good part of an afternoon later, this was the result.

And this:

And so many more ghosts that I'm just too ashamed to show. Ghosts in trees. Ghosts in bushes. Ghosts on rafters. Ghosts, ghosts, ghosts...

So, ghost overkill? The answer to that question, my friend, is yes, only if you aren't a 5 year-old girl.

Pumpkin Patch

We spent Saturday out doing exactly what should be done on a gorgeous fall day - frolicking at a pumpkin patch!

There were so many non-pumpkin related activities at this pumpkin patch. Sarah was loving life, even with a massive head cold. One of the highlights for her were the "pony" rides.

Sarah chose to ride the biggest "pony". She would like one of these in her backyard, please.

Then, Mike and Sarah tried their hand at ball launching:

For some reason, Sarah wanted to wait in line for a cheesy photo. So we did.

There were lots of other fun activities I didn't even document - hay rides, haunted barn, petting zoo, games, scavenger hunt and so on.

Eventually, we had to get down to the main reason for visiting the patch, PUMPKINS!

Lots of potential pumpkins were closely examined.

Finally, our perfect pumpkin was found.

This little fruit was hugged and lugged.

And ultimately displayed proudly.

A successful and fun excursion!

Disc Golf

Once upon a time, I told Mike that I would never play disc golf. To me, it looked like a sport for ultimate frisbee rejects, or the sort of activity that the hacky sack crowd might be drawn to when not polishing their Dungeons & Dragons figurines.

Mike took my statement as a direct challenge. It became his mission to get me on the disc golf course as soon as possible.

Before we drove home to find snow, we were in Portland visiting friends, friends who just happen to live next to not one, but two disc golf courses. Next thing I knew, we were all in a gorgeous park holding plastic. (Important Note: Do not refer to the disc as a frisbee. The correct term is plastic. Also, the sport is not called frisbee golf. Call it disc golf. If you violate either of these rules, you will be mocked, mocked by the hacky sack crowd. You can't get much lower than that.)

None of us had played disc golf before, and we quickly violated all of the above rules and more, many more.

This is where I have to apologize to Mike and the disc golfers of the world. We had so much fun that day. I strongly suspect it had a lot to do with the company that we kept.

But also, disc golf is a funny, funny sport.

And, anything that can get you outside with good friends and make you laugh from deep within your belly can't be that bad.

So, sorry Mike. Sorry disc golfers. Sorry hacky sackers. Sorry D&D enthusiasts and your figurines. May your plastic fly straight and far. Or whatever.

No Joking

Remember those little snow pellets that I told you about last week?

Weren't they cute and such a novelty for the last days of September? You could debate what to call them - snow or graupel or hail or little adorable ice balls. Or, you could just cuddle them until they melted in your warm paw. Oh, such a sweet teaser of winter.

Well, I don't know what irritation October is dealing with. But, look out! She is angry and out to smother us with a blanket of heavy, heavy snow.

That's right. Snow.

There is no debating what to call the 6 inches of white stuff that we found in our yard this weekend.

That is most definitely snow - large quantities of heavy snow that broke tree limbs, knocked out power and left us all scrambling to find our winter gear.