fall weekend and halloween

Before November comes to an end I suppose I better take the opportunity to get caught up on my October posts, and to say: HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Yes, I'm falling behind on blog posts again, but, better late than never.

Kevin and I both love fall, and we've been having an exceptionally fally one this year. The weekend before Halloween Kev and I managed to pack in a ton of fall/pre-Halloween fun. Kev took an introductory woodworking class that Friday evening, and came home with a wooden tool chest that he made. It was so great to see the big smile on his face and to hear about all of the skills and tools he learned to use in just three hours. When he walked in, big smile on his face and the tool chest in hand, I felt so proud of him! Kev's talked about getting into woodworking for a long time, and I'm so glad that he finally decided to start taking some classes. Saturday morning we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast of oatmeal and coffee, and then headed off to Minneapolis to pick up our friend, Jesse, on our way to Apple Jack Orchard and Farm. We picked our pumpkins, did a little apple picking, took some hammy jumping shots, and made our way through the corn maze. After the farm we met up with Jesse's husband, Matt, at a haunted house in the burbs. I, the woman who cries during scary movies because she just can't handle the anxiety that they cause, was not thrilled about the haunted house, but it actually turned out to be fun (sort of). On Sunday morning we decided to drive around the neighborhood and look at the spectacular fall leaves (and, you guessed it, to take some more jumping shots), and then we set off in search of our Halloween costumes. A quick trip to a Halloween store and the Goodwill for some inspiration/supplies for Kev's costume, and then a trip to the fabric store for everything I needed to make my costume. We spent the evening at home, where we enjoyed a tapas-style dinner of sliced apples, green olives, manchego cheese, crackers, smoked oysters, and fig spread (delicious!), and then carved our pumpkins and set up our Halloween display (complete with the ghosts I made - I was feeling crafty this year). We got a little adventurous with our pumpkin carving this year, and the results were pretty darn good (we got lots of compliments from the trick-or-treaters this year, so we impressed children at least). 

 

Halloween (one of our favorite days of the year) was awesome in our new home. From decorating the front yard with pumpkins and the old hay bales that used to reside under the tree in the front yard (we never did know why they were there in the first place), to handing out candy and meeting some of our neighbors, to hosting a Halloween party, it was a very good first Halloween in the new house. Kev and I were both happy with our costumes this year, and even though we didn't have a "couple's" costume (I just could not sell Kev on the Peter Pan/Tinker Bell idea), I think we looked cute together as Indiana Jones and a bumble bee. Kev's costume consisted of a $3 tan shirt and $14 leather jacket from the Goodwill store, khaki pants he already owned, a hat and whip set from the Halloween store, and his very own beard. I think he made a great Indy! My costume consisted of sewing long strips of bright yellow felt onto two large pieces of black felt, and then sewing the two black pieces together to make a jumper, wings made out of a pair of white tights and two wire hangers, a headband wrapped in yellow pipe cleaners with two fuzzy black poms from the craft store glued to the ends, and a black long-sleeved shirt and black leggings that I already owned - super easy, warm, inexpensive, and cute (my four requirements for Halloween costumes). Our party was small - about 15 people - but really fun. Everyone got into it with the costumes, and we played a couple of rounds of the game "Celebrity" (a really fun version of charades). A great night with good friends!

Phew! A long post - thanks for sticking with me. Get it? It's a bee pun. Hope you all enjoyed Halloween as much as we did.