When October Goes

The title is a rip off from an old Barry Manilow song.  I do love Barry. I always think of this song during October.  If you haven't heard this one, it's Velveeta at its best. 

Anyway, October flew by and I'm not sure how that happened.  It usually seems much longer.  Maybe it was because it was very busy (parent/teacher conferences, report cards, a birthday party, a trip to the pumpkin patch, trick or treating, and a case of bronchitis for three out of the four of us) or maybe it's because the kids are so excited for Halloween to arrive all month.  Then once Halloween is here, October is over.  In any case, here's a recap of my October.

 

Here's my Jackie Boy next to an orange Halloween blanket at the beginning of the month.  Black and orange are the perfect combo for October.

Bronchitis hit us hard this month - first my son and then my daughter and me.  I am still coughing as I type this several weeks later.  This is what you see when you have a pug, and you are sick in bed.  First this:

And then this:

 

 

Awww, all he wants to do is lay down with you and commiserate. 

 

My daughter and I did some baking for the one of our local animal shelters that was having a bake sale.

We made giant chocolate chip cookies and mini pumpkin loaves.

 

Of course I had to do a little decorating.

 

 

I made these votive holders with some sticky letters from Hobby Lobby and filled them with colorful beads and candles.

 

 

 

Ooooh, so scary!  My ghost pillow that I bought the day after Halloween for 50% off a couple of years ago is a favorite along with these:

 

 

 

Ooops... how did that get in with the decorating pictures?

We waited until the last weekend before Halloween to go to the pumpkin patch this year.  It was a little less crowded plus no matter what the size, no pumpkin was over $15 that weekend.  Except for this one.

My two turkeys...

 

Both kids are getting way too tall...

 

 

We even got a good picture of the two of us.

 

Dan and the kids carved two very large pumpkins that weekend.  The kids do the dirty work...

 

...while Dan does the finesse.

 

The kids each pick out a design for him to carve.  He uses one of the cheap pumpkin carving kits you can pick up at Target or Wal-Mart.

I think the results are pretty impressive.

It rained on Halloween.  I rushed home from work.  We had a Jack o' Lantern pizza from Papa Murphy's - only $7 - and I put these together for dessert. Ghosts in the graveyard!

This year the kids were Athena, Greek goddess of wisdom, and Luigi from Super Mario Brothers.  Note the Ode on a Grecian Urn pose my daughter spontaneously struck.  All the world is her stage.  It always has been.

   We hit the mall to trick or treat first.  While we were there, Luigi met a friend.

The look on his face kills me.

I'm not going to lie.  This October was a tough one physically and professionally.  Makes me grateful we managed to do the fun things now that I look back on the month.  Bring on November!

Kim