Monday, November 2, 2026

Halloween

Are all these photos in a random order? Yes, yes they are. I have collected photos from a variety of people, especially since I did not take a ton of photos. Turns out when your costume doesn't have pockets, it ends up being a real pain in the butt. 

Anyways - Halloween was a success! Lucy joined her neighborhood crew (she dressed as Top Gun - Maverick vibe). They hustled and went to lots of houses before crashing and relaxing for the evening. 

In general, it was a successful Halloween but the crowds were lower than expected. Not a ton of little kids either.  I also won't get too much into the fact that 50% of the kids either straight up took more than their share after we said, please take one or they tried to sneak more off the table. Very disheartening. We called them out every time and it wasn't sorry, it was more them deciding if they would push back on us or not. Just weird.  

Our neighbor joined us for most of the handing out candy and was flabbergasted by the amount of kids trying to steal more candy. boo. *sigh* I'm just glad there were still plenty of houses handing out candy but I'm afraid the behavior of the kids makes us not want to participate in the future... 

Chris and I went as Raggedy Ann & Andy. Yes - completely random, but we committed and had a ton of fun with it. Best part was the make up taking two days to come off Chris' face. Love it. 


After handing out candy - we made our way to the Belciks of course for their halloween gathering. We didn't get a group show this year - but we all had fun being silly, dancing and singing karaoke. Their neighbors all joined and it was a good mix of people - al in hilarious costumes. Of course the night would not be complete without a bush photo shoot. 


Jeremy dared me to tickle Chris to achieve this gem. 


We have a tradition that on November 1st, we start decorating Christmas. We don't have to get it done, but the goal is usually get one tree done. I have reworked my Muppets Christmas Carol tree and got it done. It now has flickering lanterns, some more muppets characters, added ribbon etc. Lots of decorating to do around the house, but it feels good to have one done! 


The dogs were SO tired after Halloween. Even though they stayed in the kennel - they could hear us and hear people and it just was too much. We were giggling at old man Remy just barely functioning on Sunday. 

My favorite photo

Jenn was hilarious in her chicken costume. 

What was left - WAY more than most years. I have to do the stats on it to see. 

I forgot to get better pictures of the neighbors animatronics they build for Halloween - always so awesome - complete with movement, sound, fog etc. 

Chris had a brilliant idea - throw the random stuff from our beer fridge in our cooler - for adults - we got rid of more than half of our random drinks! Plus the adults were happy. 

Big winners: The baby bottles, the cotton candy and Airheads. The rest was about equal, but for the 3rd year in a row - most kids choose non-chocolate candy. 


More random pictures. I'm sad we didn't get everyone in a picture. There were some great costumes. 

Now it is fully focus on Thanksgiving and Christmas!!! 

Monday, October 26, 2026

Fall Activities

We had a short weekend - sandwiched by work travel for Chris - but we made the most of it and knocked out some fall activities. 

First - Rizzo has found his new favorite sleeping space. I have found him now numerous times curled up all the way inside of Heidi's old hamper. I have found him so much that I now leave it be on its side for him. He can have his nest. :) 

Lucy wanted to paint pumpkins and go get apple donuts. These are two activities we normally do during the fall but we just haven't gotten around to it. While we grabbed our items, Chris put his hard top on the Jeep to prepare for colder weather. It is always a sad day when the top goes back on. 

Our pumpkins are Sponge Bob and Doodle Bob and then Lucy did veggie tales. 



We always get our apple donuts from the same orchard just a few miles down the road. We don't do the whole apple picking etc anymore but at least Lucy got to pose next to the creepy tree. 


Another huge win this week was Lucy spoke at church on Friday. She actually read a few paragraphs in front of the whole school and did great. Proud she was able to read the passage, all the names correctly and do an awesome job. 

We are preparing for Halloween! It shall be interesting Halloween being on a Saturday - should be a good time!