On this occasion, I thought I’d tell a couple true stories!

When I was a teenager, we had 2 neighbors (yes, only 2…we lived out in the boonies…we all had roughly 15+ acres). Neighbor Jones was a great family; I used to babysit their 2 kids. They had lots of animals like we did and we all got along well. Neighbor Smith wasn’t quite so pleasant. She had the only house around for miles that had a big chain-link fence at her driveway. She didn’t socialize with anyone and even when we’d wave, she’d glare. One day Mrs. Jones called us, asking if we’d seen her black-bellied pig, Elvis. Yes, Elvis. We hadn’t, unfortunantly, and figured the coyotes got him.

A couple weeks later, she called crying and upset. She said she had had to go over to the Smith house to talk to her about something and decided to peek into the garage, still looking for her pig. That’s when she saw him. Elvis’ skin was hanging on Mrs. Smith’s garage wall! “Mrs. Smith killed Elvis!”

My second story happened to relatives of ours, many years back. This family lived during the early 1900′s and just bought a house near an orchard. The husband, Harry, worked on the other side of the orchard and the wife would go through it to take food to her husband while he was working.

One day, after many days of very rainy weather, she was walking through and felt something tug at her skirt. She looked down, and there was a forearm and a reaching hand, sticking out of the ground. She ran screaming to her husband, “Harry, there’s a body in the orchard!” He then followed her and sure enough, there was a body just below the surface of the ground.

It turned out that a poor local family had lost a member. They were too poor to have a service/burial, so they buried the body in the orchard. Unfortunately, they didn’t bury him deep enough and the rain had settled the ground, making it possible for the hand to stick up through the mud. So be careful when walking through a field after a rainstorm!

So here’s the pics of us at the church Halloween party.

Our Little Pirate.

Lovely Cleopatra.

Dracula and Baby Pumpkin. And lastly, the Queen of the Underworld.

Last night our church held its annual Halloween party. The traditional dinner is pot-luck chili and cornbread followed by trunk-or-treat, except it was raining so we just did the candy inside. The kids always dress up, and sometimes adults do, too. It’s always fun.

Our dd was Cleopatra, ds1 was a pirate, and the baby was a pumpkin. They were all really cute, if I do say so myself

While we were out shopping for costumes Saturday, dh saw one he thought would look good on me, the Goddess of the Underworld. He thought it was fitting for some reason….??  I told him ok, but he had to dress up, too. He agreed, so he found a Dracula cape and teeth.

So, yep, he was Dracula and I was the Underworld Queen at church. One of my friends said she liked our costumes…I told her they weren’t costumes, it was our normal wear. That’s how I always look taking care of my little hellions and dh was just heading off to his evening job. (In my kids’ defense, they really are good 95% of the time.)

For trick-or-treating, 3 of us moms (all friends) just dumped our candy together and handed it out like that. It was a massive bowl!!

So all in all, it was a fun night. My chili turned out good (of course–I make a wicked chili, growing up in Texas) and the kids had fun. I’ll try to put up some costume pics tomorrow.

A friend sent me a great list of holiday cakes, so instead of sharing all if them, here’s the link to the site.

Once I got there, I remembered it from when my oldest was really little…it’s great. There’s so much fun stuff! It’s got things for kids, like letters to Santa, activities, and stories. I went ahead and bookmarked it since this post will get buried by December!

Have fun!

My sister sent me a great link to Family Fun magazine with tons of Halloween fun stuff. It’s pretty awesome, so I’ll share it! Right here.

I sat down to write something and just couldn’t find anything to say.

I’ve done the bit of politics (that’s as far as I get!), the animal posts (LOVE animals), the kid post (Halloween)….

So I guess I’ll just ramble for a bit. Hope you don’t get bored!

I love this season. I love the holidays coming up; decorating, something to look forward to, parties to throw, the changes in smells and sights. I love making a hot dinner for my dh and kiddos when they come in from work or playing outside. I love having an excuse to make apple pie. Or cider, or bread, or applesauce. I love the cinnamon smell in my kitchen.

I love watching the leaves turn colors and trying to pick my favorite one. Bright red, yellow, orange…it’s amazing. Like splashing a bucket of paint on the trees. I love the smell of the leaves and pines.

I love bundling up babies in soft, fuzzy clothes and how cuddly they are. And I love the chill at night and putting a thick quilt on my bed.

This is my (second) favorite time of year and I love drinking in each day.

I love the holidays! Not that Halloween is technically a holiday, but I love it anyway. I love the smells, the excitement, the decorations, the anticipation. I love taking pics of the kids in their costumes.

Hopefully Pierce will have a little more fun this year. Last year costumes were very last-minute and neither of the kids were happy with them. Gab was a sorceress and Pierce was a black cat.

This year, with 3 kids, it’ll be a little more tricky and a take a little more planning, which is why I’m planning now! We’re thinking of “Cinderella” for a theme…Gab be the fairy godmother, Pierce a prince, and Dean can be the pumpkin (since we have the costume from when Pierce was a baby) that changed into the coach.

I was looking online for ideas and found a cute place with tons of ideas. I either need to find something local or get it there. I’m so excited! Here’s what I’m thinking for Gab.  Here’s something for Pierce. And this is like what I have for Dean (without the legs part).