Halloween

36 hours of Halloween Madness...

Friday afternoon:  Maura's school parade

Unfortunately Maura and Audra's school parades were at the exact same time.  But miles apart.  Sean left work early and we opted to go to Maura's parade since we worried that Audra would get distracted and/or upset by seeing us but not being able to be with us.

Saturday noontime:  Little girls Halloween party

I have faithfully had a children's Halloween party every year since Riley was a little guy.  At first it was fun to get the little one's together and dress them up since there were too young to understand and enjoy trick-or-treating.  It still worked while they were in preschool and kindergarten because we could all get together around lunchtime...the kids enjoyed costumes, crafts, and candy..while the moms enjoyed Fall treats like pumpkin bread and hot cider.  And it seems I've had at least one kiddo in pre-school or kindergarten for about 12 years!  This was the year that it would end though...Audra is in full day kindergarten.

But Maura really wanted to have a Halloween party.

So we pulled together a last minute event with all the supplies I have left over from years and years of parties!

Charlotte, Maura and Audra

Saturday evening:  Trick-or-Treating

The Nurse, The Cheetah, and the...scary swamp-guy thing??

We had perfect weather for trick-or-treating.  It wasn't too chilly and there was no wind at all.

Since our quite little street with just 5 other houses probably hasn't seen a trick-or-treater in many, many years we decided to take our festivities to a neighborhood just down the road.  Aidan has a friend in that neighborhood who he met up with while Sean and I took the girls around.  This neighborhood really gets into the Halloween spirit!  Everyone was set up outside in their driveways with fire pits, lighting, music and lots of candy of course...big full size candy bars too!  There was even one house that set up a haunted house.  And at the end of the haunt they gave each dad a beer! 

This little one could probably BE a nurse without ever having gone to nursing school.

She's been in the hospital enough times that she practically takes her own vital signs!

She loves to help with her G-tube flushes and feedings.

And she thinks she knows how to set up her infusions.  

Although I doubt she would ever put the needle in herself!

October happenings

With the busyness of back to school settling down I assumed I'd get more prompt with my blog posts. Maybe next month!  So, I will save {you and I} some time and just wrap up all of our Octobers happenings into this one post.  Well, except for Halloween...that deserves a post of it's own !

The Carousel

The girls and I love visiting the local carousel.  It's been around forever and is only open to the public about once a month.  Audra is sporting her "official" Perkasie Carousel t-shirt that she got as part of her party package when she had her very first ever birthday party at the carousel.

Pumpkin patch

We went on our usual pumpkin patch trip with Uncle Tim, Aunt Dawn and Charlotte.  The boys are getting too old to enjoy this anymore :(  Hoping we still have a few years of the little girls looking forward to it.

Call it creativity {or lack of time and energy}...

Daddy convinced Maura to spray paint her pumpkin instead of carve it.

Effective....yes,

Traditional...not so much

Bowling fundraiser

Tim and Dawn had a bowling fundraiser for their adoption that is in process.  It was a fun afternoon of bowling, pizza and raffles.

This was supposed to be a sweet girls picture...I didn't know Sean was photobombing us!!

Three little beauties from China...all home for 2.5 years now

Audra, Charlotte and friend Amanda

Getting in the Halloween spirit

Audra has a bunch of Halloween hand-me-downs.  It's been fun dressing her for school this month.  I didn't get pictures of all of her outfits, but here are a couple...