All the spirits around here

The week o' Hallow'een activities is over!  The festivities started last weekend with a Halloween party where K chose to be a cowgirl, N a witch.  We skipped N's musical theatre class as I was running short time-wise and she was supposed to dress up for class on Monday!  Of course we had the school costume parade on Friday where K was Anne of Green Gables and N was tickled pink gold with purple bobbles to join the horde of kindergarten princesses.

To my astonishment, K and N both decided to don the furry costumes this evening ~ no doubt they were wary of being cold outside!  Not once while wearing their furry costumes did they complain of being cold (although we had to come home to get their mitts once we had canvassed our slushy/snowy block for treats).  As I look at this photo of K, it is apparent that she has now outgrown all the furry warm costumes I have on hand!  We will have to plan a better "outside" costume for her next year (although we had planned for her to be a cowgirl this evening but she insisted on a furry costume)!

There weren't many kids out hallow'eening this year.  We had merely 19 kids at our door.  It could be that it is an "old" neighbourhood, or perhaps some families don't participate for religious reasons or safety concerns.  We participate in it because we don't have a chance to see our neighbours very often and it is a good opportunity to have a chat before we hibernate for winter!  For me, Hallow'een is about the spirit of community and making sure that children feel safe within their neighbourhood.

As K readied for bed this evening, her mind was already set on the next event: St Nicholas' Day when gifts arrive unexpectedly at our door in early December.  We had a chat about the spirit of giving.  One day, we will have a chat about the spirit of friendship, the foundation of St Nicholas' Day.

autumn breezes

 We've spent a lot of time at our farm this autumn.  We had a farm party complete with hot dogs & marshmellows roasted over an open fire and then watched the kids race around playing hide-n'-seek while trying to avoid running through cow-patties in the dark, armed merely with flashlights.  (Somebody's cows ventured into our farm yard earlier in the week of the farm party and I was "dismayed" to discover that they don't use pooper-scoopers for cow deposits!)

Later in September, the girls have enjoyed bouncing around while riding in the 1957 Land Rover after they helped pick the potato harvest.  (We had blight this year so our potato crop has been affected.)

We've been busy getting ready for Halloween.  The girls did most of the Halloween decorating this year.  My dh strongly dislikes tolerates having the Christmas Halloween tree in the hallway for a full 30+ days before Halloween so we decorated it just for him.  (He knows that this tree will be following him into the nursing home & we will decorate it seasonally for him there too!)  I am so glad that I got those glass decorations on sale following Halloween last year!

Meanwhile, I've been working up a storm, including evenings and weekends on family law files.  It has been an exhausting autumn but we've got a lot done!