{pouring coffee}
ah, that's better. What a weekend! First, Happy Birthday to revelrain ! From reading Irene's updates, it sounds like you all had an ambitiously busy couple of days too. For me Friday morning until yesterday afternoon has been a foot race.Andrew's class had a field trip on Friday morning that I chaperoned. We live right on the banks of the Potomac River, so the class hiked from their school, through the woods to the river (as opposed to "over the river and through the woods") to experience different habitats. It was a beautiful hike and the kids overall were well behaved. No turned ankles or falling n the river. They even minded the mud puddles (called slime pits for Halloween). Then I drove over to Katie's school to catch her school party. The kids chose tiny pumpkins from a "pumpkin patch", sang songs, ate cupcakes and drank apple cider. They even had coffee and tea for the adults!
Once I gathered Katie, we setup our skeleton pirates on the porch and prepared for our trick or treating "after" party. We had to be at Drew's school again by 12:40 to help him get into his costume for the parade and party. Afterward, more sweets were consumed. After school, we relaxed a little, but I was finishing party preparations. At that time, a good friend came over to tell me her father just died. He was 84 and in and out of the hospital lately, but he fell at home and never regained consciousness. My friend was, of course terribly upset. Even though we know we're going to lose our parents, we're never ready. We sat and talked until she had to go home and pack for her trip up to NY. Thankfully, she had just been up there last weekend spent all of her time with her parents. Plus 2 of her siblings live in the same town as her mom, so their mother isn't alone.
We got the kids ready for trick or treating at 5:45 pm.We have a large group whom we go around with every year. Afterward, we always have everyone back at our house for chili, and hot dogs. The kids outdid themselves with the sheer volume of candy gathered. Everyone had a fun evening and stayed until 9:30 or so (which is late for us, as we have lots of little ones). Mike went to bed after putting the kids to bed, since he had been feeling not great and I cleaned up. I did a personal Samhain ritual outside. I could hear and feel the spirits all around me.
Saturday morning at 9am, we met the cub scouts at the school to kick off our annual "Scouting for Food" food drive. It took maybe 2 hours to hand out all our bags (each scout gets a street to cover). We'll go back next weekend to pick up the bags,hopefully filled with donations. The rest of the morning was spent packing for our last scout camp out of the season. I won't go into the details because it was largely campfires, hiking, roasted marshmallow eating, and seemingly endless games of "flashlight tag", but the weather was lovely (although cold overnight mid 30s F) and the foliage perfect. A great time. We got home by mid day and spent the rest of the day napping and cleaning up. I have a large pile of laundry to tackle today. Here are a few pictures from the weekend. I hope everyone had a lovely holiday.
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Once I gathered Katie, we setup our skeleton pirates on the porch and prepared for our trick or treating "after" party. We had to be at Drew's school again by 12:40 to help him get into his costume for the parade and party. Afterward, more sweets were consumed. After school, we relaxed a little, but I was finishing party preparations. At that time, a good friend came over to tell me her father just died. He was 84 and in and out of the hospital lately, but he fell at home and never regained consciousness. My friend was, of course terribly upset. Even though we know we're going to lose our parents, we're never ready. We sat and talked until she had to go home and pack for her trip up to NY. Thankfully, she had just been up there last weekend spent all of her time with her parents. Plus 2 of her siblings live in the same town as her mom, so their mother isn't alone.
We got the kids ready for trick or treating at 5:45 pm.We have a large group whom we go around with every year. Afterward, we always have everyone back at our house for chili, and hot dogs. The kids outdid themselves with the sheer volume of candy gathered. Everyone had a fun evening and stayed until 9:30 or so (which is late for us, as we have lots of little ones). Mike went to bed after putting the kids to bed, since he had been feeling not great and I cleaned up. I did a personal Samhain ritual outside. I could hear and feel the spirits all around me.
Saturday morning at 9am, we met the cub scouts at the school to kick off our annual "Scouting for Food" food drive. It took maybe 2 hours to hand out all our bags (each scout gets a street to cover). We'll go back next weekend to pick up the bags,hopefully filled with donations. The rest of the morning was spent packing for our last scout camp out of the season. I won't go into the details because it was largely campfires, hiking, roasted marshmallow eating, and seemingly endless games of "flashlight tag", but the weather was lovely (although cold overnight mid 30s F) and the foliage perfect. A great time. We got home by mid day and spent the rest of the day napping and cleaning up. I have a large pile of laundry to tackle today. Here are a few pictures from the weekend. I hope everyone had a lovely holiday.
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