Halloween 2011

We just made it through one heck of a holiday weekend! I was very happy to wake up this morning to November and a break in all the action! We had so much fun this year! Let's recap the festivities, shall we?

Last weekend, we had a blast at the McGehearty's annual kids Halloween party. My friend Heather throws the absolute best parties in the world...she is just a natural at it! The kids had a blast making homemade slime, eating all sorts of ghoulish treats and going for "spider hunts" in the backyard (tons of plastic spiders were spread everywhere!). They even had a pinata, which is always a HUGE hit with our crowd. :-) Colin spent the majority of the party with Lindsey's sweet baby boy Nolan. He LOVES that baby! He also loves Lindsey...as we were leaving, he said, "WAIT! I can't leave without telling Lindsey goodbye!". It was so sweet!

This past week was when things really kicked up a notch on the busy scale. My mom came to town on Wednesday and spent the rest of the week staying with us, which was awesome! I LOVE that she is retired now and can come and spend time with us whenever she wants to. Colin was over the moon about it and every morning that she was here, Colin got up in the morning and got in her bed, rather than coming to wake me up. Which leads me to the part of the post where I ask my mother to move in permanently. ;-) We really had the greatest week ever. On Thursday, she took me and my sister Alieson to lunch at Brio's and then we spent way too much time in the Yankee Candle Store. That place is heaven on earth, I tell you! On Friday, Jer had a random day off and my mom and I got to spend literally the whole day together while he babysat. I honestly can't remember the last time that I spent a day with my mom like that and it was heavenly! The first place we stopped was Gap so that she could pick up a pair of pants. I was milling around and saw the cutest hat in the world. I snatched it up and showed my mom that it was exactly what I was talking about in my last blog post. She kept telling me that it was fabulous and that I should get it and that I was being an idiot by not wearing one if I liked it. The two sales people overheard our conversation and immediately chimed in about my hat debate. I had the whole store involved at this point. ;-) They both said the hat was fantastic and that I should get it. One of them even snapped the tags off right there and stuck the hat on my head, telling me to wear it out the door right then. So, what else could I do?! I wore it! I got a huge kick from the big response I got on the blog post and it was cracking me up that I turned around and bought the hat. I was determined to make a go of it! As soon as I walked out the door with my mom, a woman who was in the parking lot called out to me, telling me that she loved my hat. My mom was all, "SEE?!". It was hysterical. Now determined, I wore that hat for all of the next half hour. The problem with wool hats in Texas is that by noon, it is too damn hot to wear them. I begrudgingly abandoned the hat to the car, but I promise you that I am going to rock that thing this winter, along with the cashmere beret that sits gathering dust in my closet! Who cares what other people think! I like it! At 34 years old, I figure I should stop worrying so much about what other people think, anyway. My mom took this shot with my phone...not a great picture, but a FABULOUS hat!

We kept making our rounds after that and hit several more stores. I didn't really buy anything else, but had a great time drooling over all the awesome fall clothes. We had lunch at Cafe Express and then I took my mom over to see the giant dutch oven that I want for Christmas. It was a perfect day! I then spent the remainder of the afternoon and night making my homemade cinnamon rolls to take to Tanya's baby shower the next morning. Tanya is due with little Vivian Ruth on Thanksgiving day and we gave her a shower on Saturday morning. Kim hosted at her house and we all contributed dishes. I made the cinnamon rolls for everyone last Christmas and they were requested again, so I got down to business on Friday afternoon. :-) They take forever to make, but aren't hard to do at all. The reward for your time is SO WORTH IT and let's just say that my diet was NOT followed on Saturday. I ate my fair share of those babies. I have a major problem with pastry. MAJOR. Anyway, the shower was so much fun and my mom got to go with me! It felt great to have my mom finally meet and hang out with some of my friends. I am always so jealous of my friends who have their parents living close by. She took the following picture for us...Tanya is the pregnant red-headed supermodel standing behind me, in case you didn't know. :-) What a great morning!

That night, we had our annual "grown-ups only" Halloween party to attend and I was yet again so thankful to my mom for staying with us all weekend and taking care of the little man. We had the best time ever and didn't make it home until 1:30am, which is LATE for us old folks. Jer and I managed to snag "sexiest couple", but since he threatened to murder me, I don't have any pictures to show. HA!! I do have one of me with a couple of friends, but I cropped them out because I need express written consent to share grown-up Halloween party pictures on the worldwide web. :-) I think I was a very good "Brownie", if i do say so myself. I thought my addition of bows with the beret pretty much made it.

So, FINALLY, we come to yesterday...HALLOWEEN! Colin went to school and they had their big Halloween party. They did a "trunk-or-treat" this year where the cars line up in the parking lot and decorate their trunks and hand out candy. They also had two bounce houses set up and a photo op that was adorable. I volunteered to work, so I had the first shift and got to see a ton of precious little cuties. I ran home afterwards, picked up Jer and came back for Colin's turn. He was so precious in his "builder" costume and had a great time trick-or-treating to all the trunks. After that, I ran to the store and stocked up for the trick-or-treat get together that we hosted here at the house. I made chili with cornbread and spiked cider and we had the Parkers and Turners over for some dinner and trick-or-treating. It was a blast!! Colin loved having his buddies to walk around with and the kids all had the most fun. All in all, we had a PERFECT Halloween this year! Here are some of the great shots from yesterdays festivities:

I am so thankful this year, more than ever before, to have my wonderful family. My son and husband are my whole world and my blessings are endless. I am a very lucky girl.