Halloween fairy...and other days leading up to that...

Okay...let's get this thing started.

Um, first order of business...fall pictures, for my friend Pamela. As you can see, not all trees change at the same time, so you have my neighbor's beautiful yellow and red trees, while my trees stay green. That big green tree is a pear tree, and we have two of them in our front yard. They don't lose their leaves until it is so cold that holding a rake gives you frostbite. Oh, and if you don't pay hundreds of dollars to have them pruned every few years, they get really top heavy and weak. Then all it takes is a robin farting as it flies by, and their branches fall apart and the entire trees have to be removed. Lovely trees.
Looking into our backyard. Oh, how I love our burning bushes. But as much as I want a Christmas card picture posed out here...it just never happens. The few days these were at their peak this year, it was raining.

The Maple Triplets in our side yard. Oh how I heart these trees. So shady and elegant in the summer, and they burst into color each fall. And this is our view out our family room window. NOTHING beats a cold snap day, snuggled under a blanket on the recliner, sipping a cup of hot cider, dipping ginger cookies and looking out the window onto those three beauties.

Okay, now for Halloween. Lily had her party and parade last Wednesday. The parade looked something like this: (each child sprinting towards their family)

I tried to get a picture of Ariel and Belle...the girls were less than enthused.

The whole class...notice how a few are being restrained by the teachers on the left...cute, aren't they? And, yes, that is her entire class...except that one teacher isn't in the photo. 9 kids, 3 teachers, reasonable tuition...love this school.

Kate and Colin flew in Thursday night. I have disappointingly few pictures of their tenure at our house. On Thursday I took Kate to our Thursday night playgroup...it can be a bit, um, crazy. But I think she had a good time talking with my friends, I KNOW my friends enjoyed meeting her, and Colin did fantastic.

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The next day, we went to the pumpkin farm to pick out our pumpkins. After convincing Lily to put back 6 of the 9 pumpkins she had picked out, we went to a craft store to get paint and brushes. The Halloween fairy had arrived! Then Andrew went to school, and Kate and Colin got to work making decorations.

Towards the end of Andrew's school day, we went to watch his school's Halloween parade. They actually go on a mile or so parade route through the streets of our town, with the 4th and 5th graders stopping through the nursing home in town. Very cool. Unfortunately, I was going off of the original letter home, and didn't realize they had changed the time. So we missed the whole danged thing. I dropped Kate, Lily, and Colin off at the park near school and ran in to get Andrew.

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I got a cute picture of Andrew in his classroom...notice the really short student in the front. Hmmm...why isn't he in costume?

Then we hurried back to play at the park too. Colin put his cousin to work right away.

Michael contemplating where he wants to go next...

Andrew wizened up and rode with Colin in their "time machine".

Then we went home for...you guessed it...naked pumpkin painting.

Lily painting her baby pumpkins.

Andrew painting Michael's pumpkin. I kept Michael restrained in the basement while the Halloween Fairy took over the painting. Have I mentioned I hate painting with kids? At least Kate got to witness the madness that is trying to clean up paint while keeping the one year old out of the paint and out of the toilet while the other kids wash up.

Saturday we had pumpkin bagels for breakfast and to a farmer's market thingy for lunch. Andrew ate 4 pieces of sushi for his Aunt Kate. That's not just a Halloween Fairy...that's a miracle maker.

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Then we carved our pumpkins and took naps and then went to Wendy's for dinner and then got ready for trick-or-treating. Rain was in the forecast, so we left early...like 5:45 early. But good move, because it started to rain at 6:45.
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Here's the crew getting ready to go out. Good thing we have those glow sticks...I don't know if anyone could see them...in the daylight and all. Oh, and there are 2 extra kids in there...our bus stop buddies came over and trick-or-treated with us. We ended up meeting up with a couple other girls from Andrew's class...he had a blast showing off for all those girls and running up to houses with them. Lot of fun.

In front of their carved pumpkins. This is the best it gets, people.

Andrew, Colin, and Kate passing out candy after we were done trick-or-treating.

Besides all the Halloween fun, we had lots of time playing and laughing and fighting and eating and watching shows and catching up on our sisterly stuff.

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Here's Kate making Michael belly-laugh. And teaching him to hit people in the face with hammers (?)

I'm so lucky that my sister is willing to go to the trouble to fly here to spend a special weekend with us. Colin is our kids' only first cousin, so I love making these memories for them. We'll see you guys after Christmas! But this time, we'll come to YOUR neck of the woods.