Happy Halloween! and Happy Birthday to Me!

What a fun day Halloween is! Parties, birthdays, trick-or-treating...so much fun.
I woke up to the smell of pumpkin bread and quiche for breakfast. That was lovely. No cracked wheat today. :)

Then Benjamin had a Halloween party at school which he said went great. While he was there, a wonderful friend offered to watch my other kids so I could have some time to myself on my birthday to spend my birthday money! Such a thoughtful gesture! Friends who understand what life with small kids is like are great.

Then I picked everyone up and we had "dinner" because I knew with all the craziness this evening, it wouldn't happen. We spent the rest of the afternoon playing around until it was time for Benjamin's swim lesson and then trick-or-treating!!

Everyone looked sooo adorable! Bella wasn't in the picture taking mood, so we made many attempts to get a decent shot. Here are the closest ones we got of Iron Man, Rapunzel (and her chameleon Pascal), and G.I. Joe...oh and me, the Hippie - a term which had my kids asking, "a WHAT?" I think even after trying to explain, they still didn't really get it, but Bella told me, "I like your headband." Good enough.




And Christian had so much fun on his first time trick-or-treating! He carried his jack-o-lantern with a huge grin on his face (wish I'd taken my camera along!!) and muscled his way past the big kids to the door. He'd carefully select a candy and proudly hold it up for me to see before putting it in his stash. Then he'd try to go in to the peoples' homes. :) Guess he figured if they're giving this stuff at the door, what must be inside?! He also loved all the dogs that came to the door! I think we can say his first word is "dog." He perks up immediately if he hears barking and every time he'll say a word that sounds just like dog, so I'm guessing it is.



Of course, the best part of trick-or-treating is afterwards when you pour out your buckets and examine (and eat) the loot. Christian made sure to sit on everything to test it. :) I don't think he realized it was food. He was having too much fun squashing it and throwing it around. Works for me.

Just a couple cute pictures from this past week that I wanted to share.


Bella had a preschool Halloween party. She was so giddy excited the whole time. She had the biggest grin on her face of anyone in the class. (She's on the far right side middle row). So cute. She thinks she's such a big girl now. She tells everyone she meets, "I'm three! I'm already in preschool!!"


We went to Greenfield Village one last time for this year before they close. We had the whole place to ourselves almost! We saw 3 other small families/couples the entire time we were there. Guess that's what going on a cold October day will get you. So we rode the carousel three times in a row by ourselves, the horse carriage driver allowed Benjamin and Bella to hold the reigns and drive the horses, and the model T ride had no line whatsoever, which has never happened to me there. So nice not having to wait while huffing that exhaust! It was a wonderful day.


We also went to a friend's 5th birthday party on Saturday which was a lot of fun but ridiculously far away (she lives close but her party location was 45 minutes away), so we broke up the drive home with a stop at a favorite playground which we don't get to very often (because it's so far away!) So much fun! and I think it's so funny when the kids pose and say, "Take a picture of us!" Makes it so easy! Just wish I were a better photographer.

I hope you've all had as fun a Halloween season as we have!