Gettin' ready

Our night was spent at my Uncle Doug's house

visiting with my Dad's family.

We have family here from Louisiana, Nevada, and Arizona.

I love my family.

We had a great time looking through old family photos.

My Grandma sure was a knockout.

Aunts, uncles, and cousins bustled around the kitchen

getting ready for tomorrow.

Pies,

pies,

and more pies.

Can I even tell you how good that kitchen smelled?

Luckily Aunt Peggy made an extra apple pie for us to dig into tonight.

It was

delicious.

I just finished making my pumpkin spice butter,

now I have to wait for it to cool.

I had to sneak into my parents house after midnight to get some ingredients.

{What a rush.}

It is very very late.

Why oh why do I always procrastinate?

Well, I'm off to dreamland,

where I'm sure some of tomorrow's delights will make an appearance.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Secret life of toys

This is what we spent our Saturday night doing.

Yeah, we are that cool.

p.s. Don't worry about the man's missing hand,

or chewed up face. That would be Gritz's doing.

Blue

*Dear Nana, reading this post will likely make you cold.

Read at your own risk.

Although this weather calls for

eating something like

warm pumpkin chocolate chip bread,

Pearl has decided her snack of choice is

frozen blueberries in a cup.

She herself has devoured whole bags.

To make things even colder, She likes to eat them in the nude. Here's to blue stained fingertips.

Vanity at it's purest.

the Halloween run-down.

The Zombie and the bride.

Kelly's costume done all by himself.

Pearl wears the dress Aunt Mari was sealed to my family in.

The veil was made by me, costing only $2.13

Every year,

Halloween is hosted by Kelly's sister Amy.

She always has delicious soups and rolls to eat.

Jill brought her pumpkin bars,

topped with cream cheese frosting.

Yum!

All the kids get to show off their costumes.

This year, the two oldest grandkids-

Jake and Mason,

decided they were much too old for Halloween,

and especially for dressing up.

Pearl's first piece of candy was offered to her

by her Uncle Austin.

This piece of candy was a blue lollipop,

which in turn made Pearl's mouth blue.

Pearl was then transformed into

the

Zombie Bride.

Which she would be known by for the rest of the night.

That Uncle Austin,

he also asked Pearl (who has a huge crush on him) to marry him.

She of course nodded her head yes.

Pearl was so excited to trick or treat.

She had practiced saying it all day.

Once she claimed her first prize-

a fun size bag of M&Ms,

she thought she should eat it immediately.

Her father, the Zombie, explained the need to wait,

and she understood.

Then there was Kate,

the butterfly.

She's been doing this a few years you know,

and she knew just when to sneak the candy into her mouth.

The singing skull.

Pearl said to me, (me being a gothic Mom.)

"Mom, you look so, so scary."

Then she went about her

trick or treating.

With a very tired bride in tow,

We made a stop at Papa and Nana's.

She of course chippered up when

Nana offered her a very special ball that glows,

and the pick of the candy.

Nana turned on the player piano,

and Pearl danced the night away.

Halloween is on.

Pumpkins were carved while listening to

the Raven

by Edgar Allan Poe.

Pearl gave my pumpkin one scoop and called it good.

She didn't enjoy the carving too much either.

She resorted to coloring her pumpkin instead.

I think it turned out pretty darn cute.

Then there was Kelly's pumpkin.

Something you should know about Kelly--

As a young boy he used to dream of having

reams of paper

to draw on.

Always the creative mind.

So no surprise when he pulled out the power tools.

Now my pumpkin,

I thought was fancy when I put stitches on his face.

I named him Slash.

Kelly's of course would be the one that looks like a Picasso,

as noted by my Mother.

Halloween,

we are ready for you.

Pearl has been dancing to the

Monster Mash all day.

Now we're off to watch

Hocus Pocus

while I make some last minute touches on

Pearl's costume.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!