Halloween

As I write, Bridget is going through her Halloween candy, trying to choose her ration for the day. It's a tough choice because she has a ton of candy. We trick or treated through our subdivision last night and the girls made out like bandits. Add to that the fact that they were still working on eating all the candy the received at our church's "trunk or treat" party on Saturday, and it's apparent that I'll be doling out candy rations for days and days to come -- yippee.

Tessa dressed as a kitty cat this year and Bridget was a bunny rabbit. Here are some photos:





Once again, Dwayne outdid himself carving our jack 'o lanterns. This one is a "mad doctor":



This one is a "conjurer" with his crystal ball:



The girls are being very thoughtful about giving me Butterfingers and Reese's from their candy, since they know they are my favorites. What a couple of sweeties!

The Sunflower Patch

After we left Hayden's party, we traveled a few miles north on old Hwy. 411 to see two very large sunflower patches. Several cars were pulled to the side of the road and people were wandering through the fields and taking photos. That's what we did, too.

Here are Bridget and Tessa in the patch:



Here's Dwayne with a sunflower:



It was really cool!

Hayden's First Birthday

We attended a birthday party for my great-newphew Hayden on Oct. 13. He turned one year old on Oct. 10. He is the cutest thing!! He reminds me so much of his dad, Matthew, and his auntie Miranda when they were little. The party was held outdoors and it was a lovely day. Hayden was given a small chocolate cake all his own to dig into. The results were predicatably adorable.

Here he's still nice and clean and just looking at his cake:



Here he is getting very chocolatey:





Here's the "official" Elmo party cake, made by his granny (my sister Sandy):



Hayden cleans up well. Here he is after getting the chocolate scrubbed off him:



He seemed puzzled by getting lots of gifts, but I'm sure he'll have it figured out by birthday number two.

Abney Elementary Fall Festival

We attended the fall festival at Bridget's school on Saturday, Oct. 6. The weather was fine and the girls had a great time. There were lots of activities including face painting, temporary hair color, pony rides, large inflatable "jumpy things" (Bridget's term), and sand art.

Here are the girls "before" the festival:



Here they are "after" getting their faces and hair done:



Here's Bridget on a small pony:



Here's Tessa on a rather large pony:



Not sure why tiny little Tessa was placed on the big horse. She was a bit scared she'd fall off, so I held her hand as she rode.

Anyway, we all had a fun time at the festival -- it was pretty cool for an elementary school shindig.