Happy (belated) Halloween (and the rest of October)!

I started to write this post yesterday, and I'm glad I didn't get a chance to finish it until today, the day after Halloween, because Halloween morning I was feeling a bit curmudgeonly.

I've said it here over and over, but come October 31st each year I find myself in survival mode. I LOVE October (I think it's my favorite month of the year!), but what I love is fall weather (some places) and fall decorations and pumpkins and celebrating Lorelei's birthday. What I DON'T love is the inundation of Halloween-esque events that require my children to dress in a costume and get hopped up on sugar. And since October is a long month with actual Halloween at the very tail end...let's just say there are far too many opportunities for "fun."

Not to mention that I'm burned out on my beloved candy corn by approximately October 5th (because, you know, they start selling it at the end of August, which is of course when I start buying it), and it NEVER FAILS that, in an attempt to save a few dollars by buying Halloween candy when it's on sale throughout the month...Chet and I end up opening it and snacking on it ourselves. UGH. Next year I vow to not buy any candy until HALLOWEEN DAY, no matter how much extra money it costs.

Whew. I think my rant is over. Apparently I'm still feeling curmudgeonly -- welcome, November!!!

I'm just going to go ahead and tell you about the rest of our October. Here are the fall/Halloween decorations I took pictures of:

Lorelei had a great 7th birthday, which we celebrated at home (and also by going a pumpkin patch with friends):

Lorelei received the doll she's holding in the picture below from Grammy for her birthday (Sydney received a similar doll from Grammy a couple of Christmases ago):

...and "Aunt" Ruthie LOVES to babysit the dolls when her sisters aren't around to tell her to not to:

This October we dealt with a dental issue with Ford that is thankfully resolved now. VERY long story short, he had to have a molar removed, but leading up to that there was a lot of seemingly unexplained mouth pain and SEVEN visits to the doctor/dentist in a span of twelve days.

In my ongoing attempt to make things festive in our home, I wrote these notes for the children Halloween morning:

I'm pretty sure Better Homes and Gardens is going to feature this idea in their next issue.

Coincidentally, and NOT included in the aforementioned seven dentist visits in twelve days, the kids had their regularly-scheduled dental cleaning Halloween morning. It was Ruthie's first visit:

Finally it was time to dress in their costumes. Sydney was Hermione Granger (from Harry Potter), Lorelei was Harry Potter (wearing the Quidditch robe), Ruthie was Mrs. Norris (a black cat from Harry Potter), and Ford was Draco Malfoy (from Harry Potter...a bad guy who he happens to look exactly like). I told them to line up and smile, and these were the looks they thought impersonated their characters:

HA! So serious.

That's all...thank you, November, for arriving!!!