I couldn't get a sunset shot tonight. We were out trick or treating at the time, but there were just too many tall trees in our neighborhood to see any of the colored sky. So I took this pic, because it's a beautiful tree and it was right around twilight.
I really enjoyed the capture your grief project this year. I know last year I think I started it and kind of quit part way, and previous years it was mostly through photos, which was cool, but some of the topics were hard to convey in photographs. This year, I really liked the topics, and writing about them. It helped me to do a lot of reflecting and coming to terms with things and thinking about my grief in ways I hadn't before. I found myself looking forward to each day to write (despite having to often do two or three days at once). I wish everyone peace and comfort in their grief journey.
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So Halloween was great this year for Em. She enjoyed trick or treating last year, but there was no build up to the day and I am sure she didn't really know why she was walking around Baba's neighborhood and going door to door. This year she's been excited about it, pointing out pumpkins and ghosts and witches and making scary faces and playing with window clings. I'd tell her she was going to go trick or treating and she'd get really excited and she has two Halloween books that she loved reading.
On Saturday we went to my brother's house and went downtown where they were doing a trick or treat at a bunch of the businesses. It was a nice day, in the 70's so she wore her Elsa dress that my MIL got for her to add to her dress-up trunk. I was glad the weather was nice so she got to wear different costumes to each event, and all of her costumes this year were free! I refuse to pay a lot for her costumes that she is going to wear for an hour or less. Her first Halloween I did spend some on her banana costume and Ryan's gorilla, but come on....daddy gorilla and baby banana was just too cute, I had to splurge. But that year she also wore a lady bug costume, and last year's monkey both came from second hand stores so they were probably 5 bucks each. My MIL bought Elsa and the bumblebee she wore tonight came from my supervisor.
So she had fun Saturday dragging her uncle around to the businesses and getting candy, and then we had dinner out and then hung out with them back at their house. I had told her we were going a few days before to get her excited, and one day she put her purse on and said bye mama. I asked where she was going and she said to Joe Joe's for Halloween. Omg, so adorable. Last night we carved pumpkins, she wasn't as into that but we of course had to do all the work so she didn't really participate but she liked seeing them with the candles in them when we were done. So tonight once it got a little dusk and we saw others out and about, we took our little bee and went around the neighborhood. Our next door neighbor, I am never really sure who all lives there because she has family over all the time, but her adult daughter answered the door and gave Em her candy and talked for a few. Then we were at the next house and the mom came outside from next door and was calling me, telling me to bring Emily back so she could see her. So we went back and she gave Em another piece and she was saying how cute she was and asking how old she is now. We really have the best neighbors.
After a few more houses, we met up with our neighbors on the other side, so we went to a few houses with them, but their kids could not contain their excitement. They are like 13, 11, 7, and 3 so they were all running from house to house, so we lost them after 5 houses or so. Emily took her hood down for a few houses, and despite being great weather tonight for Halloween in Michigan, it was getting a little chilly. I think it was around 53...so at one point I put her hood back up and she said, "that's better, thanks".
We went to this one house that I admire a lot, they have an added on second story and they put the stairs in their living room against the wall next to their drive way. We are seriously considering adding an upstairs, and that is exactly where we would want to put our stairs too, so I was excited to go to that house so I could peek in and see how well the stairs fit. I think our living room is bigger than theirs too, so the stairs really shouldn't take up that much room. Ryan even asked the guy about it and he was telling us how big the upstairs is and how he wishes it was a little bigger. Good to know. I love walking around our neighborhood...for the most part the houses are all the same style, so it's fun to see the different things owners have done to their house over the years. It's like a giant showroom, and we get to see how thing looks on "our house" before we do it.
I think we were out for about 30-45 minutes, she got a decent sized stash for her little self (and for mommy and daddy to steal some). Once we were back we turned our porch light on to hand out candy. We were giving each kid two pieces, and we ended up emptying our bowl and had to turn off the light. There were still kids out....but I think if we had given only one to everyone, we would have had some leftover. But I was happy to get rid of it, Em's candy is enough of a temptation, and it was good to see a lot of kids out. It doesn't seem like as many kids trick or treat as when I was a kid. In previous years we hardly got any kids at our door. But the weather is part of it. No rain, no snow and a very comfortable low 50's. I'm so glad the first Halloween that Em was really excited for and aware of was good weather. Last year was ok, but it did sprinkle a little, and the year before was awful, very cold and raining. I think we took her to two or three houses and called it quits. She was only 7 months old, she didn't care. I'm excited to see how into Christmas she is this year!
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