Whew!

Wow! Have I ever been on the go this week. Thought it was going to be a slow week, but it ended up busy and fun.

Somewhere amongst all of the fun, I managed to get down my Halloween decorations. Everything is happily stashed away except for the outdoor stuff which will be put up on the top shelves in the garage this evening after hubby comes home and can hand things up to me as I will be high up on the ladder.

I think I mentioned that I have just a few more Halloween photos to share and then we are on to November! On Halloween morning I had the honor of being at Hud & Presley's Halloween Festival at their pre-school. It is simple but fun and always a delight watching how the little ones interact with each other-especially in costume!

With all of the stations that were set up, Presley's favorites were the tattoo area and, as always, "decorate your own cookie-and then eat it"!

Hudson's favorites were "fishing" and, again, cookie decorating! I love how high those little kids can get the icing and goodies piled on those cookies. We used to do this sooooo many years ago at our Halloween parties and it seems as if it was the favorite back then as well-funny how that works!

Later that evening, we were invited to dinner and then trick-or-treating. Always so much fun. I just love to see how excited the kids get and how warmly they are received by so many neighbors. Always lots of good memories to be made.

And so we wrap up another October and another Halloween. I truly can't believe that the entire month is over but, once again, we filled it to the brim with all of our favorite traditions with a few extras thrown in for good measure.

The month of November is always a beautiful weather month where we live and this year is no exception. I have actually had windows open all week and it is gorgeous. We have already been to south Florida for 3 days for a beautiful family wedding, feted at the pre-school at a special celebration of grand parents, voted and baby sat Hudson during the Gator game. It is rare that we only get Hudson and he was so much fun. I had a few chores that I had to get done before we could sit down and watch the game, so he came along with me and we had a grand time. And, of course, it culminated with him getting to pick out an early birthday gift. He chose a remote control truck and what fun we had racing it around our circle and up and down ramps once the Gators pulled off the sloppiest win ever! Oh well, a win is a win and we will take them any way they come these days.

The house is now decorated for Thanksgiving-if it were only clean as well, life would be good. I will be posting some pictures soon. Stay tuned.

Finale!

O.K. I know it is November. But, since my Halloween decorations are still up in my house, I feel like I can still post Halloween pictures. These are the last... I promise!

So, here we are in St. Pete at the home of our oldest daughter. This is where we usually have our big costume extravaganza and this year was no exception. Only difference this year is that we were missing our oldest grand daughter - who had to work - and her Dad who stayed in town with her to make sure she wasn't alone for the weekend.

Here is the other half of that group. Becky is dressed as a raven (a play on her maiden name for those of you who don't know her) and Morgs is a prisoner-don't ask why. It is a costume she has talked about for a few years and this year decided to go for it.

Had to take this picture quickly. That is my brother dressed as Bruce Jenner! He wrapped Saran Wrap around his face and it was hysterical-but made breathing a little difficult. My sister-in-law is Kris Kardashian Jenner.

Our oldest daughter and her hubby came as Forrest Gump and a box of chocolates. Caitlin was a football player this year and Olivia was Harry Stiles. Apparently he is her favorite from a new "boy band" and since the costume she was to wear never arrived and she put this together on the spur of the moment, I think she did a great job!

Here we have a bat (NOT Batman mind you), a princess and a Ninja-guess none of these characters wear shoes-ha-ha.

 Tried to get a better picture of Jennie & Elton, but by this time of night (when a fair amount of sugar has had time to reach little systems) we take what we get. Jen was the "Publisher's Clearing House Guy and Elton was the lucky housewife at the door.

Nana and Papa-pretty self explanatory

Nana, Papa and kids

The Ravn Clan

The whole gang. This picture was taken with much difficulty-and lots of laughs and a few grumbles from the guys- as Hannah is our resident, timed photo guru and without her there, the rest of us were pretty clueless!

In any case, the evening was a rousing success and we have survived another year of way too much fun for Halloween! Thanksgiving fun and decorations will be on their way soon. Stay tuned.

Just remembered that I still have a few Halloween pre-school party pix and trick-or-treating to share-just a little something to look forward to!

Take Your Pick

 I was lucky enough to be invited to visit the pumpkin patch twice-once with Presley's pre-school class and the next day with Hudson's. Both days were fun with games, stories and lots and lots of pumpkins! Truly is just one more Halloween tradition that I love and I am so happy to still have little ones in my family who allow me to come along to the patch with them!

Presley managed to tag along with Hud's class the second day so she was lucky like Nana-two visits in two days! Have I said how much I love autumn? The big costume reveal is up next. Stay tuned.

The ONLY Place to Be!!

One weekend in October every year is "Halloween at Nana & Papa's". We have been doing this for as long as we have had grand children. We all love Halloween in our family and the celebration pretty much goes on all month long. Of course, as some of the kids are getting older and have more responsibilities (sports events, school events and yes, even a job), I knew it would get harder and harder to find a weekend they could all be here. But, find one we did!!! And how happy that made us old folks!!!!!!

We always start with a group picture-such as it is. Pretty hard to get everyone looking at the camera and smiling at the same time so we have learned to "take what we get". Then, we move on to family and individual pictures. The last thing we do is all of the kids under the welcome arch but this year, somehow, we forgot that one. I am kind of sad because it is fun to see how everybody has changed over the year, but the next time I have all 7 of them together again, I will see what I can do!

The Hutchisons

Hannah

Morgan

The Masellis

Caitlin

Olivia

The Hollands

Harrison

Hudson

Presley

We always do at least one craft but since this has been a pretty rough year for all of us and I really wanted the cousins to just have some good bonding time, I wanted a craft that was really simple and kid friendly and went to one that has been all over the blogs and Pinterest of late-the wobble eye frame. I bought inexpensive frames and sprayed them black. Then I loaded up on wobble eyes fron the Dollar Tree and pulled out my trusty Aileen's Tacky glue. ALL of the kids were able to make their own frame-some had more eyes artfully arranged and others went with mostly the large eyes in a row, but somehow they each looked great. We downloaded the pictures we had just taken and they each picked their favorite. I printed them and we slipped them into the frames. I also had a bunch of glittery Halloween die-cuts and some of the kids used them as embellishments (or ribbon) and some chose to leave theirs with just eyes. I am sad that I never got around to making one for myself. Usually I make a sample but this seened so self explanatory, that I didn't-oh well, there's always next year!

 

Then. the kids took turns making our chocolate covered mummy Oreos. Another simple project and we bagged up the extras and gave them as gifts to their parents when they came to pick them up the next day.

It was truly a gorgeous day-really the first big hint of autumn we had had-so time outdoors was a must! Santa brought the swing set and tree house to our yard on Hannah's first Christmas almost 16 years ago and it still stands and has been loved by all! I made sure there was lots of time for plenty of outside play time-for all ages! It is so much fun to watch all of their imaginations at work and so heart warming to see all ages doing things together-the 4 older girls are just wonderful with their younger cousins and I am so happy the younger ones are getting these memories of family time as well!

Then, we were on to dinner preparations. Each one made their own mummy french bread pizza (sorry, no "after" pix) and while they were baking we made "scream bananas", "haunted trees" and "string cheese witch fingers". By this time, we were ready for the Gator game so dessert was simple-ice-cream sundaes with Halloween sprinkles and our Oreos.

Since the 2 boys were having Lego withdrawal, it was now time for that while 2 "crazies" went swimming-BRRRRRR- and the rest of us watched the game.

During halftime, Presley got a Halloween manicure-reminds me of my 3 girls when they were little. Where does the time go???

After the game, we all settled in for a Halloween movie and conked off one at a time. Sunday brought Halloween Captain Crunch-because it turned your milk green- and Halloween Fun-fetti pancakes thanks to Aunt Becky.

All too soon our weekend was over. Always a sad time, but we knew that there were pumpkin patch visits, our big family costume party and trick-or-treating still to come, so we said our good-byes with tons of new memories and the promise of the rest of this wonderful month still to come! Stay tuned.

"What Have I Been Up To" You Ask......

I know I have mentioned that I love autumn more than a few times. I also love sewing, but I am not the kind of sewer who can "wing it". I need a pattern. But, alas, that has not been the type of sewing I have been asked to do of late.

Things began with my daughter asking me to do some sewing for her new home. It started out as simple panels for the LR and DR windows but somehow became lined drapes - and almost lined pinch pleats except that she didn't buy enough fabric for them-whew!!! I think the reason I like pattern sewing is that someone else has already done all of the pre-thought and measuring. I am not much of a pre-planner. I like to dive right in and it has gotten me several times. Luckily for me, I am also a pretty good jerry-rigger so I can get myself out of most fixes I get into.

This Halloween, NOT ONE of the six costumes I made were made straight from a pattern and four of them actually had to be completely designed from scratch and the other two tweaked and changed  a lot - could be why I ended up sewing my finger into the machine and needing a trip to the doctor's office but that will be for another post-ha-ha.

 

In any case, I made the panels for both rooms, taffeta curtains, pillow shams, dust ruffle, a pillow and throw for Presley's room and throw pillows for the boys' beds. Think they all turned out pretty nicely.

It seems like October is also the month of observations and play-off tournaments for all sports.

Grand daughter Morgan (lower left) plays for Howard Bishop Middle School and they won 2nd place in the county play-offs.

Grand daughter Hannah (#4-second from top right) plays on the varsity team at Eastside H.S. and they won their district championship and are on their way to regionals.

Then we go to this little munchkin. Presley is only 3 years old, so this is her first year of dance. Her class is tap/ballet/gymnastics and she loves it. She is the youngest in the class but oh so serious about it. It was so cute to see her concentrating on her "spot" on the floor and heel/toe, etc. Simply can't wait for her recital! I love the recitals as the girls get older and their skill levels get better and better. A good dancer is a beautiful thing to watch...but, I have to admit, I LOVE watching the littlest ones on stage. Nothing better than them bumping into each other or having one completely take over and tell everyone else where to go. This group was just told that they are going to be sea creatures in the June recital-can't wait!

And finally, we got to watch Caitlin perform with the Devilettes at the St. Pete H.S. game. This is a varsity squad and since Caitlin is only a freshman, we are so proud of her.

 A few random Halloween pictures. Here is the fireplace in the sunroom. Just a bag of bones from Wal-Mart and a few extra body parts I had laying around. So simple yet it looks fantastic when it is lit at night!

Here is a picture of the lighting idea I stole borrowed from my oldest daughter. It is really hard to see here, but I took off the shades and replaced the regular bulbs with flicker light bulbs from Home Depot. Even though they are clear, they "read" as orange when lit and give the room an eery ambiance-love it!

 
 And here is my favorite surprise of the holiday. My cousin knows how much I love Bethany Lowe so when she found a picture of this pillow in her file, she replicated it as a gift for me. I love the pillow so much but the fact that she spent so much of her time making me something she knew I would love truly humbles me. Thanks again Diane. I will cherish this gift always...and look how at home it looks nestled on the bench by the front door.

We still have Halloween at Nana & Papa's house, pumpkin patch, costume party, school party and trick-or-treating to go. So, you see what I have been up to but I wouldn't trade a second of it. Love all of the craziness that goes with this family. Stay tuned-there will be more.