Pumpkins and....the beach?

Fall in Ohio makes you think of colorful leaves, corn mazes, and pumpkins.  Rarely does it bring to mind the beach...unless you are Grace!

The afternoon started out with Grace and Kyle designing and carving their pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns. It was warm and sunny so we decided to take the project outside to the deck.

 I always avoid the ooey, gooey part by taking the photos!  

And then within about an hour of finishing the pumpkins, Grace came down from her room in a bathing suit carrying a pool towel and said she had a plan.  Kyle and I both reminded her that it is October.  But, it does feel warm outside, so....what the heck!  It will be snowing soon enough.

Here's what the finished jack-o-lanterns looked like lit on the porch at night.

Hectic Halloween

Volunteering in Grace's 2nd grade classroom for their Halloween party and parade was 1 1/2 hours of hectic fun with the kids.

The head room parents did a great job of planning a creative snack - donuts with vampire teeth - games like "make your buddy a mummy" and Halloween BINGO with candy corn, and sent all the students home with goodie bags and a ghost pretzel at the end.

The kids all seemed really excited to put on their costumes.  The whole school paraded in each classroom and then that class tagged on the end of the line to follow the parade into the gym for parents and guests.  I saw some of the parade in the hall outside Grace's classroom.  There were lots of cute costumes and I was surprised there weren't more "Elsas" given how popular the Disney "Frozen" movie is right now!

You should have seen the classroom after 22 second graders wrapped each other up in 22 rolls of toilet paper!

A pumpkin for my pumpkin

We needed to get our pumpkins to finish the fall decorating outside the house.  Szalay's Farm is always a good place to go.

They had HUGE pumpkins.  Some were so big there was no way we could lift them.  But, we chose reasonable size pumpkins that are perfect for carving in a couple of weeks. 

Grace was very interested in the rock band graveyard. She looked at the tombstones very carefully and asked why they didn't have names on them. I think she might have been a tiny bit afraid.

Bulldozing the backyard

We don't have much of a backyard.  Beyond our deck and covered patio is a very steep, grassy hill. We finally made the decision to change this unusable space into something better with stone retaining walls, plants, and a flagstone walkway and sitting area for a fire pit.  Oh, and there is going to be a small beach for the kayaks!

What I hope our landscaping will look like when it is done - a mixture of grasses and colorful flowers.

Humoring me

Grace humored me for a few minutes this evening when the setting sun cast a beautiful yellow-orange light on everything.  What a great, crisp fall day!