October

The month began with my siblings and I surprising our parents with an anniversary dinner at the beginning of the month - 45 years is cause to celebrate!

The happy couple.

Charlie was proud to receive the Good Sportmanship medal one day following flag football.  Don't get me wrong, there were some highs and lows throughout the season (especially when he really wanted to tackle) but he ultimately enjoyed it and he and his coach (BJ) are still on speaking terms so we are a happy family.

Lucy is always happy with cupcake-themed clothing so she was thrilled when she finally grew into some cupcake pajamas from her cousins.

Halloween became a week's worth of celebrations between hayrides near our house (complete with face-painting and balloon animals for the kiddos), Night Eyes at the Zoo, pumpkin patch trips and costume parties.  With any luck, we'll be out of Halloween candy by the time the Easter Bunny hops into town.

Charlie had fall break for a few days so I took some time off and we had an awesome morning at Barnes and Noble.  Bookstores are my happy place (next to Target) so it was great to see that they too can happily "waste" a morning with their mom.

A photo with our friends from the Night Eyes at the Zoo event.  We decided to head to the zoo in the afternoon so we didn't really enjoy the "night" at the zoo but we had a great time nonetheless.  We both had Star Wars themes going so you'll see Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Lucy as R2D2 (minus the adorable hat because she's Lucy and she has a mind of her own) and Charlie as Darth Vader (minus the mask because it's hard to eat candy with that darn mask).

And our family photo with me as Princess Leia and BJ as Obi-Wan Kenobi.  If my kids ever doubt my love for them, please show them this picture.  Much to Charlie's dismay, my Star Wars knowledge is extremely limited but the "kids" gave me this costume for my birthday in July.  Two can play that game so I promptly ordered BJ a costume.  I was extremely close to ordering a Chewbacca or Jabba the Hut costume but my frugal side got the best of me.  The wig was hot but the kids were thrilled with our themed costumes.

We're always thrilled to find references to Charlie Brown, which are really prevalent now with the new Peanuts movie.

The zoo had a host of activities - including many characters available for meet and greets.  If I were the animals I would be relieved that there were finally other "attractions" to get the attention of the screaming kids.

Princesses?!

The Justice League?!

The night of actual trick-or-treating and Lucy decided that she was done with R2D2 and instead went as a cowgirl.  She had pink glitter cowgirl boots from her 2nd birthday that fit perfectly, who could blame her?  Her only complaint?  How could I have failed as a mother to get her a lasso.  Even now, days later she shakes her head in disgust at my oversight.  The teen years should be a breeze.

 Here's to hoping that October treated you all very well!