What a weekend we had! Chock-full of Halloween festivities, including Glow at the Gardens, the South Broadway Halloween Parade, SIX hours at Anderson Farms, plus some fun Halloween food and movies too. It was all really wonderful and I’m feeling fully in the spirit heading into this week, when my son will be turning 6 (how?!?!) and we get to celebrate skeleton-style at his party this weekend!

Why does the seven hours between when I drop Dempsey off at school and when I pick him up on Friday always go so fast?? And it took me four of those to finally warm up from our bike bus ride 😅 I ran errands, worked, worked out, cleaned up and then made a fun Halloween dinner for all of us before we headed out to the Botanic Gardens. Emily had sent me this hot dog ghost idea and they turned out so cute and festive! I felt borderline sick after eating the third one but Dempsey told me it was the best dinner ever 🥰

Afterward, the kids got dressed in their costumes and we headed to Glow at the Gardens. I don’t know if it’s because Dempsey seemed less excited this year, or because they changed it up and there was no Headless Horseman, but it felt a little lackluster. That being said, Delaney and Chad joined us this year and Lydi was so happy to have her cousin there with her! And I’m never not glad for an occasion to hang with my family! They also had a little Halloween puppet show at the end that I found so funny 😂

Oh Saturday was a good one! The kids slept in and Joey went out on a run, so I started some spooky pancakes for all of us. The topping was definitely achieved by food coloring but the green pancakes are actually spinach-produced! We hung around the house for most of the day, finishing projects and chores and then the kids and I watched Halloweentown for the first time together and they seemed to love it!

At four, the kids were back in their costumes and we all headed to dinner on South Broadway. The parade came across my feed a month or so ago and I’ve been planning to go since! We had one of those nights where it all just worked out. We got a good parking spot near the restaurant, didn’t wait too long for a table, ate “huge ass slices” of pizza (Dempsey literally ordered it this way and we later had to have a talk about how even though everyone laughed at that story, it’s not really something we should repeat outside of Fat Sully’s 😅) before grabbing a front row spot at the parade. Plus it was perfect weather outside! It was a little sparse to begin with, but then Beetlejuice, Lydia Deetz, all three Sanderson Sisters and a group of costumed dancers came down the route and it was all fun from then on! My favorites were all the Ecto-1s and Ghostbusters, an axe-throwing company float with Jason aboard, a pogo-sticker doing backflips and inflatable costume-wearers dancing to “The Monster Mash.” The kids got some candy too. We got out of there and back home fairly easily and got the kiddos straight to bed. Dempsey told me this was his favorite part of the weekend and I think it was mine too!

Sunday Extra Funday! The kids slept in again and then we all ate breakfast and got ready for the pumpkin patch. We literally spent six hours there and we still didn’t do everything (though this is the closest we’ve gotten)! Headed out to the patch first and you can tell the kind of weather we had this year by how mushy a lot of the pumpkins were. We all still managed to find some cool ones. Afterward, the kids played at the jump pad until our bonfire was up and running and then we all roasted hot dogs and bratwurst for lunch. Post-lunch, we walked through the corn maze, visited the petting zoo and let the kids do pony rides before heading back to the bonfire for s’mores! They have a new play area with tons of climbing obstacles that the kids were loving. Everyone else started to take off about then but we stayed to fit in a ride on the barrel train and a few loops around the trike track for Dempsey. Feel especially proud of him for braving the pony and the train because you could tell he was nervous for both! Somehow, no one fell asleep on the way home, so when we got back, we watched Room on the Broom, then dinner, bath/shower and bed for the kids. Afterward, Joey and I watched the last episode of Widow’s Bay and… I don’t know, is the show that good? 🤔

Dempsey’s birthday is tomorrow! Casa Bonita, here we come!

A rare laid back weekend in the month of October! Especially laid back for the girls, who did not go camping with the Cub Scouts this weekend but it seemed like the boys had so much fun and I’m happy for them ☺️ Once reunited, we had a nice couple of days to work on projects at both our and my sister and Wayne’s houses and even though poor Joey is probably having less fun fixing something at the rental, I love when stuff breaks over there because it’s a chance to see my sis ❤️

I basically spent all of Friday painting Dempsey’s closet and why did that take me so long?? Joey briefly came home to pack up all of their camping stuff and it was making me so anxious to watch him rush around before he had to go pick Dempsey up from school 😅 Later, I picked Lydia up and then we got dinner from Fire on the Mountain and watched Moana 🥰 You can’t hear it, but she was saying “girls’ night!” when I took that picture of the two of us. Gosh, she’s the best! Our report from the boys was that they managed to put the tent up without directions, made s’mores around the campfire, watched the older kids put on skits and had a great time! Meanwhile, I got my girl to bed before retiring myself.

LOL at me thinking Lydi might sleep in on Saturday — her little eyes were open at 6:15 AM! She requested hot chocolate since she heard the campers were having some and I made us æbelskivers, then finished our movie. Joey said Dempsey slept great and he had woken up every two hours 😅 I didn’t think they’d be back till after noon, so I took Lydia to the children’s museum for a bit but then the boys were home early, so we didn’t see them till we got back for lunch. Seemed like everyone had a fun time and hopefully Dempsey made some new Scout friends. Spent a few hours over at my sis and Wayne’s and I think Dempsey’s highlight was playing video games with Uncle Wayne 😂🥹 Back at home, I made us some steak fajitas then Dempsey did a little hardwood sanding before we put them to bed and we watched an episode of Widow’s Bay and the beginning of GBBO before I was straight falling asleep on the couch.

We had a home day on Sunday and barely left the house! I joked with Joey that I was going to make seven different things in the kitchen and then I really kind of did it 😂 Got salads for the week, banana bread, tortilla soup, ribs and coleslaw all made, then come dinner, I just had to finish off the ribs and make some stovetop mac and cheese. My biggest life epiphany has been that you can just make ribs for dinner any old day, it doesn’t have to be the 4th of July! Meanwhile, Joey was trying to finish an outdoor project and the floor and baseboards on the closet. The kids had fun moving all of Dempsey’s clothes over and then made an absolute mess moving Lydia’s clothes over to the side Dempsey’s had been on 🤪 They also helped walk the dog our neighbors are watching and I think it was the highlight of their day. Post-dinner, we watched It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown then put them to bed. It only take an hour and a half and like ten trips back upstairs because they need something these days and I’m ready for this phase to end 😅

Glad we had a low-key weekend because our next few will be busy! I’m very much looking forward to it all though 🙌