Happy Halloween!

I know there are a lot of people who are not in favor of Halloween. Since it's a holiday we don't celebrate in Germany (at least didn't use to when I was little) I get a bit confused. I don't like the scary monster costumes either. Neither do I understand folks who like slasher movies. But is the holiday evil because some people make it so scary?

To me it's just an occasion for the kids to be creative and come up with a cute costume. My daughter wanted to be a Minion from the Despicable Me movie this year. So we worked hard together to make our own costume. We died a white shirt yellow. I made a head covering from yellow velour and sewed some hair to it. The overall were decorated with stencil by my daughter. Dad helped with the goggles. Big brother helped with quality control. It was a project for the whole family.

Didn't it turn out great?

Happy Halloween!

The family spent all weekend cleaning up the mess from last week's storm. I feel like Hercules after cleaning the Augean stables. My back hurts and I am soooo sore from all the lifting, chopping, and dragging of dead tree limbs. Supposedly the city will pick up the pile of brush we put out by the street. It's "only" a pile about 5 feet tall and 20 feet wide...

The kids had fun playing on the pile. I couldn't help but smile though my heart was heavy looking at my dead Italian plum tree. No more plum cakes. Sniffle.

Hope all those Trick-or-Treaters  are careful tonight. It's going to be difficult maneuvering around the brush piles on our street. I swear ours is the highest and longest in the neighborhood.

Can you find the second child in this picture?

Happy Halloween! And be safe out there!

Happy Halloween!

Last minute preparations...
A witch of sorts and a ranger from the North...