What, no Halloween Post?

I had the best of intentions to do a Halloween post this year.  I actually thought I wrote one awhile ago, but I must have been dreaming. On occasion, I've been known to incorporate dreams into my reality.

We had a great fall and Halloween.  Fall in Michigan, before it gets way too cold, is one of my favorite times each year, even though it is typically short lived. It must be the vivid fall colors combined with fresh cider and pumpkin spice donuts.  Thankfully we've had gorgeous fall weather this year with plenty of sunshine and a few MONTHS of warmish weather.  I was determined this year to get out and enjoy it more, especially now that there is pressure to create all these family memories =)

Awhile back Scott had the day off so we went to Fredrick Meijer Gardens.  We had a great time looking at the Chihuly exhibit and Ellie enjoyed running around and splashing in the mud at children's area  After playing, we went to Robinettes (my favorite place for cider and donuts) for lunch and a donut.  One donut turned into a dozen and we were on our way home. 

On Halloween weekend, we went back to Robinettes for... guess what? Another donut.  This also turned into a dozen donuts before we even pretended to try to stick with just one each.  We also went on a horse drawn hayride through the orchard.  Ellie loved it at first, but then got bored about halfway through. Thankfully I had a heavy supply of crackers with me so I could keep her happily occupied with eating.  I'm sure that is another great habit I'm teaching her.  She thought the horses were big dogs and enthusiastically barked at them for awhile. When we got close up at the end of the trip, she no longer had the larger than life attitude and shyly smiled at them.

I was also determined to carve pumpkins this year.  We went out the evening before Halloween to Meijer to scrounge for pumpkins, but surprisingly they had a great supply (and cheap too).  So after Ellie went to bed, we downloaded some stencils and cranked up the spooky music on pandora.  We came out with these beauties!

The next day was Halloween. Ellie was an adorable lady bug, I was Odie, and Odie was a squirrel, his arch nemesis. I think it showed a lot of maturity on Odie's behalf.  We went trick or treating at Gramas house, Alison's house, and then a few neighbors.  She didn't really enjoy it but hopefully she'll think the cute pictures were worth it some day!

Happy fall!  Snow is on the way!!!