Raking

And raking and raking and raking...

And that's just the front yard.

Halloween Past

No good pictures of Lily from tonight, so here are some old ones:

Late 1960s - me, Frankie, Mary, Manny, Joey, Linda, Michael. I'd love to know who that is with the red sock on the right. I'm wondering if this was Halloween or some other party?

Maybe this is what started my fear of clowns.

Lee in the infamous clown costume. I think every kid in our extended family wore it.

Me as a witch.

October 31, 1929

This Halloween would have been my grandparents' 80th wedding anniversary. Leo and Anna, or Jimmy, as everyone called her, were married in 1929. Sadly, no one can recall ever seeing their wedding photo, and there's really no one left to ask about the wedding. All my Dad remembers hearing is that it froze the night before, and all their mums died.

We don't need a wedding photo to know, however, that they were a sweet and loving couple to each other and to their family and friends. They were truly loved.

With 4 of their 5 grandchildren, sometime in the 80s (look at our hair) at the Bavarian Inn - I think celebrating Grandpa/Bebop's birthday.

Halloween Parade

Today was the annual neighborhood Halloween parade. As always, the weather was perfect (10 years in a row, it seems). Unlike always, I stayed home to try to sleep away a bad cold. Michael took the photos. I did watch the parade from our front steps with Baci - who for some reason spent the whole time facing away from the parade and toward our house, with the occasional bark at the reflections in the front door. She's just not quite right these days.

Parade kickoff.

Lily and her new school friend Gina.

It was a fun-filled weekend - and we have a whole week to go until actual Halloween.

Halloween Party

Lily hosted a Halloween party this afternoon for some of the kids she graduated with from daycare. They haven't seen each other for a few months, and it was sweet to see them hug hello.

Very specially decorated cupcakes.

A lot of effort went in to decorating the basement!

Lots of fake cobwebs. I did note the irony of vacumming up the real cobwebs only to decorate with fake ones.

The gang. The ghost on the wall was for "Pin the Boo on the Ghost."

And this is what happened two seconds later when Michael, who was hiding in the furnace room, jumped out.

Pin the Boo. Michael made the ghost.

Chowing down.

Later that evening . . .

Florida

Lily and I took a fast trip to Florida this weekend. We flew to Orlando and spent the first night with Grandma and Grandpa at Disney's Not-So-Scary Halloween party. Lily loved seeing Disney all decked out for Halloween, and said the parade was her favorite part of the trip (#2 was seeing Chico, #3 as G&G's pool). Speaking of the pool:

#4 was Grandma's waffles.

A lovely time was had by all - thanks Mom and Dad!

She Meant Well

Conversation that took place while waiting for Lily's eye exam:

Deb: Lily, you look so tall and grown up.
Lily: What do you mean?
Deb: You look like you're 6 or 7, not 5.
Lily: Is that good?
Deb: Sure, I mean you look and are acting like a big girl. I'm very proud of you.

Long pause.

Lily: Mommy, you look 63 not 43.