The most wonderful time of the year!

What a month it has been! I have such an affinity for autumn- I love the bright brisk days, the changing leaves. Seriously- it is MY time of year. Where we used to live this season would last at least a couple of months. Here, we're lucky to get it for a month before the rain sets in and those sunny days are much much fewer and farer between.

That said, this fall has been full of all kinds of new, exciting, and different things. Settling in at Kindergarten brings a plethora of autumn crafts, songs, poems, coming home everyday crammed in Hannah's pink backpack!

Hannah and I are both new Girl Scouts this fall. She's a Daisy Scout and I'm one of her fearless leaders. (Mark your calendars, I believe cookie sales start in late January!) We've had two meetings which have been SO energizing. I've seen a new side of her- the more independent, growing-up side, and it is amazing.

Sarah really got into the whole idea of Halloween this year. See photo below for proof. :)

This year we made our annual trip to a pumpkin patch with the company of our friends Elena, Jeff, Sam and Anthony and enjoyed carving pumpkins and a yummy soup dinner at their house. It was quite a feat to get this photo of all eight of us looking at the camera at the same time!

My pumpkin is the uncarved one, third from the right, Shad's is the ENORMOUS white one, Hannah's spider and Sarah's little cat are on the far right. I did manage to carve my pumpkin a couple of days before Halloween.

I really had it together and we did a full-blown costume run two days before Halloween so we could troubleshoot any issues. I even impressed myself when I remembered to bring my camera and get some shots in good light of my little ladybug and gypsy queen:

We were optimistic this year- Hannah has planned on being a gypsy since LAST Halloween when one of her girlfriends was one. Oma scored some great finds at local thrift stores to complete the look. Sarah vacillated a lot (let's see there was shark, octopus, bat, spider, pumpkin... that's the short list) and she made Oma really nervous when she would say, "Don't worry Oma, you make it for me." (Hee hee! What confidence that girl has in her Oma!)

Friday I was able to help out with the Halloween party in Hannah's classroom. The girls changed into their costumes so we could head out to the College to visit our girlfriend Sue O., who has known Hannah since before she was born! Sarah decided on the way to the van that she didn't want to wear her ladybug costume after all so she went in her black shirt and pants that went under the costume.

Then we ran to the bank as Hannah was the Grand Prize Winner in their Halloween coloring contest. She won a pumpkin full of candy and she was really tickled. Sarah got honorable mention in her age group. ;)

We met Shad at home for the final push out the door for dinner with Jeff, Elena, Sam and Anthony and check out the hayrides and carnival games in their neighborhood. I'm still not sure where it all went awry. The girls hit the dress-up box at the VERY last minute and we ended up going out with a bubble fairy and a dancer, as well as an Ewok and a witch:

I'm not sure why Sarah looks so glum in this photo. She had a great time. It was crazy weather- stormy all morning, gray skies, and WARM. Poor Anthony was roasting in his fur coat. Our evening was an early one- the girls were in bed, asleep by 8.


And, on a wholly unrelated note, Sarah asked me to do her hair for the first time in months. Pig-tails. Couldn't you just eat her up??