Signs of Hallowe'en to Come

I usually end up doing dishes in the early morning, with my pumpkin spice dish soap of course!  Well, I found this lovely creature in the silverware drainer and I took it as a sign I was not to do dishes this morning.  It did not survive the hot sauna and following disposal action in the sink.  I do feel bad but once a spider has crossed into my space, it is survival of the fittest.  This time I won.  

I brought my dress up bins into work for two people to borrow and caught Megan the moose, Cathy in pink and Colin in Elvis glasses and curly wig.  No Facebooking but OK on here.  

I can only have my little Jack burning for a few more days and then it will be moved over for a red orange owl.  

Gloria was in Allentown for three days and wanted to go out to dinner when she got home.  We went to Baylor's favorite Texas Roadhouse. He could not get his virgin strawberry daquire because apparently someone forgot to make it virgin at one point and got some kid drunk. Poop.  We usually take a photo there and he was is such a goofy mood.  He was showing me how he can draw a star without looking and was just a fun, goofball!  

He was happy to see Mama again and went home in her car.  Welcome home Mama!  

The Leaves, They Are A Changin'

It is happening, the changing of the leaves.  

And the night before the full Hunter Moon rise.  

My little goblin running around shirtless!  

It really was a beautiful moon rise.  My camera phone does not do it justice at all! 

Trunk or Treat

Mom and Dad arrived Sunday late morning to help with the clean up.  Some things went right into the van to go to Trunk or Treat at the church where Baylor goes to day care.  It was a long morning putting everything away any I was beat by the time we were done.  But at 3:30 we headed to the church parking lot to set up our car with many other cars who were already there.  We were given number 17 and more cars arrived by the time it was all set up.   I have never been to or set up for a Trunk or Treat but had a general idea from the internet what to do.  In the back of the van I pinned up several of the tablecloths I had just taken down from the party to make it dark.  Having a van makes for a large area!  I just had several battery lit pumpkins, a talking pumpkin and several strobe lights on low.  One or two had noises as well.  It was not easy keeping the sides on as it was pretty windy so it was not as dark in the back as I was planning on.  Baylor wore his bucket head costume and I put a small headband on Meme.  I had a camo shirt with small foam pumpkins sewn on it.  I was a pumpkin patch, which was Baylor's idea from years ago.  

From 4:00 to 4:45 the kids were in the gym and they had several games set up.  I liked this ping pong ball in the cauldron game but I am not sure it would work at my party: too many balls bouncing all over the place.  

Another was a knock a pumpkin off  the head of the preacher and the director of the daycare.  Zayden hit the pumpkin twice but it would not fall off.  But like my games, once you do the trick, everyone gets a treat.  

This game they used a Twister spinner and then picked a prize from the same colored bucket.  Apparently the green bucket/green prizes were the most coveted as the girl in front of Baylor wanted one from there and the lady just moved the spinner to green so she could get one.  

This was a fun one in the toddler room.  Just spider webbing and little spiders to toss on to the webs.  They all stuck. 

I thought about bringing Meme a chair but never ran to get one. I wish I had because it was a lot of standing for an hour during the treating. I had her sit on the car edge for a while so I could walk around.  She could not keep up with Baylor and I did not worry about him.  He treated until he was done.  

We were at the end of the lot and could see all the trunks and the masses of parents and kids. None were very spooky/scary and some were just grandparent aged people sitting behind their cars handing out candy to seriously decorated trunks.  

I ran into Baylor a few times on my walk. 

When he was done he helped me hand out candy.  I put my bucket away so he could be the primary candy giver.  

At 6, that is a big deal.  

The car across from us was a nice scarecrow patch. 

Ginnie and Zayden had a nice witchy truck.  She borrowed a hat for her costume. 

Ryder's mom and Grandma also had witchy trunks.  

I made it back to my pumpkin patch and found my candy crew.  

We liked our trunk and Baylor suggested we do a Day of the Dead next year.  I said, YES!  

We did not stay for the supper afterward.  I had Pap at the house and Gloria coming home so I did not think it would be fair for us to eat there.  And I had food cooking at home anyway.  Baylor helped Meme make salad bowls.  

And he wanted to mash the potatoes so I let him of course.  I loved having him back in the kitchen with me.  We had a nice dinner of crock pot chicken, spaghetti squash and cheese (like mac and cheese only no mac), mashed potatoes and gravy, and salad.  It was a nice family dinner!

Fourth Annual Hallowe'en Festival 2015

The morning glow shot for 2015.  I was up at 3:45 (old person insomnia comes in handy sometimes) so I had an early jump on getting ready for the day's festivities.  Mom and Dad were not coming until later in the morning, a double booking at the Thatcher-Miller Hotel lead them to cancel their original reservation and just drive up three days in a row.  

We had two frosty mornings this week so the leaves are changing more each day.  They were green last weekend and by next weekend they should be mostly down on the ground.  Baylor has been looking forward to playing in the leaves for weeks now.  

I brought the pinatas out of the laundry room.  We had a candy corn and a sugar skull this year.  They took most of the weekends in September to finish.  

I set up the photo area with the dress up stuff.  Mom and I picked up a few more items at the thrift stores this year.  I think next year I am going to put grommets in the canvas and use hooks to hang it up instead of the tape.  It will look better and stay up better that way. 

I added just a few more games this year.  One was the apple bobbing with the ladles.  The kids seemed to enjoy it though most of the apples were only half eaten or left behind.  But no one left with a wet face.  

While I have the same decorations, I try not to make it look the same every year. And then I give things to my dad and tell him to just hang them up so don't know where they will end up.  In the end, it is all good.      

I had a bit of a change up this year because Gloria removed one of the tables, the one I used for food, so I had to change the floor plan.  But it worked out.  The food went on the back table and the crafts went on the patio table.  

Kristia and her gang were the first to arrive, while I was still making the churros.  They were a hit this year, especially with Baylor.  It was a beautiful morning and not too windy, which can be an issue with the games. 

Another new came was the Spider in the Web game I built.  I bought plush spiders online and they were tossed into the web hole all day! 

Other than that, the set up was pretty much the same as last year.  

I did make a sign for the direction to the bathroom.  I started it with Ghouls and Bats Room (Girls and Boys Room) but I thought the girls might not like being a ghoul and a ghost was a bit more neutral.  

There was an issue with bounce house and we almost did not have one. They apparently never received my reservation request and when they did not show up I messaged them on FB.  She made the arrangements to have it there by 10:30 and it was.   Which made Baylor super happy of course.  He was asking all morning when it was going to arrive.  Molly was one of the few girls who came and she was a Little Pony.  She loved the play house and brought every other girl who arrived over to play in it with her.  

Kartikey was there and I don't think the two of them left the bounce house all day.  I would see them grab a bite to eat and sip to drink and there were off again.

Baylor of course wants to be the first in everything and was quite upset when the little kids got to go first.    

I let him be the first of his age group which was acceptable.  He wore his Storm Trooper costume for a while and eventually took it off when it got too hot.  I had fun getting the grass stains off the knees!  

Kartikey was Spiderman.  

Molly, Little Pony of some sort. 

It took two rounds of kids until it cracked.  One of the older kids asked why it was so hard and I explained it was hard so the little kids all got at least one turn hitting it before the big kids broke it open.  He understood then.  

We did a peanut toss between pinatas.  I think the Sugar Skull turned out pretty spectacular. 

The tiniest one up first, he will be two in November. Thankfully Grandma was there to help.  

He took one turn and then waited on the sidelines for it to crack.  They all got excited when they saw it crack but they had only broken the false back of the head!  More whacking ensued.  

And eventually, it too broke open and spilled its insides all over the grass.  It was a good party with a good turn out.  Well, for Baylor it was a good turn out.  I was sad because my friends were not able to come due to illness, (Tara, I am talking about you) and the McGraws had to cancel because of a broken refrigerator. And Kartikey's mom had to work.  I did shed some tears over it all but pulled myself together because the party must go one.  And it did, for another year.