HALLOWEEN!!

Scary Pumpkin

M&M

Hello Kitty Witch!

What a MONTH! Well, I got a second-kick of Halloween energy and October went out with a BANG!

Food Drive - Last week the Scouts took the food and money that we collected. We filled almost 2 huge rubbermaid bins full of food and decent amount of cash donations. We will make this an annual tradition to "Scare off Hunger!"

Pumpkin Carving: Friday, I cleaned out the pumpkins. We roasted the pumpkins seeds and had a good salty snack all weekend. We cut out the pumpkins on Saturday. Which is your favorite? I may have to do some more pumpkins next year. Homer Simpson maybe? ha!

Doughnuts: We found a doughnut dispenser at a garage sale for the sole purpose of making doughnuts on Halloween. I was determined to get it to work. The Yeast doughnuts didn't taste very good, but it was the perfect application for the spiced cinnamon doughnuts. So GOOD! I didn't take a picture. I should have taken a picture of our kitchen (what a MESS!!) .. or captured the smell .. the deep fryer always makes our house smell like a chinese restaurant. ha! Next year I'll do it outside!

Early Birthday Surprise: Friday night, the cat was out of the bag and I decided to give Pete his Birthday present early. Below we used the new contraption as a Halloween costume in the rain. Little Amelia is R2D2 and is shielded from the elements. Here's the funny story behind this find. Emily told us that she saw a R2D2 refrigerator or something like that at a garage sale. It turned out that it wasn't for sale, but the wife said that her husband never used it. Emily was worried she didn't get me a birthday gift. I told her that in lieu of a birthday gift she could track down this guy and see if he would sell the R2D2 to me. She didn't know which house it was and it took 2 tries to find the right house. They weren't home when she stopped by a bunch of times. Finally she got the number from the wife. I happened to be in Mapleton for a Halloween spook alley. I was at Emily's house and her home number rang and Emily said, "It's for you Cathy." Pete said, "For Cathy?!" It was the guy and we figured out a price and I planned to go to his house to look at it. Anywho, I tried to be coy and said I had to run to my friend Melanie's house for something, but I knew that Pete knew, but he didn't know that I knew he knew (confusing?) ha! Now our life is complete. We have a drink cooler that rolls on casters and is the shape of R2D2.

Halloween photo shoot: The Ritz Camera store by us does free Halloween photoshoots and you can get a sheet of pictures for free as well. They do it from 10:00 to 3:00 PM, so I recommend doing when your kids are getting ansy for trick-or-treating. I am copying Emily's decorating idea and I'll switch out my picture frames with seasonal pictures. I'm trying to figure out how to set up a similar studio at home.

Trick or Treating: - We did trick-or-treating at one of the rest homes after the photoshoot. We took a break and tried trick-or-treating in the rain with just me, Phillip, and Lily and 2 umbrellas. I think we only got to 5 houses in an hour. We took the whole family to some of the houses in the neighborhood and called it a night.

Clean Up and Set Up: - Yesterday Pete worked from morning until night taking down Halloween inside and out. I helped, but often got distracted by other projects. Pete also sets up the Christmas lights the same day so we don't have to worry about doing it in the snow.

What a wonderful time of YEAR!!