Fall and Halloween dish displays

If you're like me, and like to decorate for the seasons, it can make this time of year extra busy.  The good news is that from September through November, you can start with the basics of fall decor and make just a few small changes for Halloween and Thanksgiving.  

Here's what I've done for September and October.

 Fall

 Knowing that I like black and white for Halloween, I started with those dishes, added galvanized tin baskets and layered colors of fall with orange bowls and sunflowers.

and snuck in a cute antique cow card.

 Zeus thinks he's the center of attention.

I left the sink full of dishes (usually even more full) for a little reality.

Halloween

Then just like that, bing bang boom, it's time to change for Halloween October 1st.

Halloween's not my favorite but I'll add just enough for the kids to enjoy.  I'll be adding pumpkins once I'm able to get to the store but for now, I like the color balance.  

I love Abby's little ghost. 

Side by side you can see that the basics are similar with only a few items changed.

In another post I can show the rest of the decorations in the other rooms.

Thanks for letting me share!!

Halloween...done

Out of all the holidays, Halloween is last on my list.  I'm just not into celebrating the spooky.  I will, however, enjoy dressing up as a character, watching my kid's school parades, socializing at parties, and of course eating my fair share of candy. I used to  enjoy trick-or-treaters coming to our house but I think in the 5 years that we've lived here in CA, we've maybe had 3-4 families TOTAL knock on our door.   Yet, every year we turn on our porch light, put candy in a bowl, and wait. Nothing. 

 It's sooooo sad!

Thank heavens for elementary schools and churches who put on some great parties!

Every year, Abby's school does a dance then a parade by grades.  

She really got into dancing during the parade this year.

Arctic Princess and Judy Hopps didn't even get a pic together.  

Matthew was a no-show for costumes this year.  Too cool.

The Church had a chili cook-off and trunk-or-treat. Again this year, my veggie chili was not a top pick but at least most of it was eaten unlike my healthy cornbread (no eggs or oil).  I had about all of it to take home.  I even heard one mother caution her little one, "Oh, that is the healthy one" then directed her to choose a more fluffy sugary choice.  Was it that obvious?

Joseph and I both dressed in our western garb, because to us they are out of the norm.  Since I'm the photographer, you won't see me in any of the pictures.  You'll just have to take my word for it.  I did get a shot of Joseph and Abby with her two friends from school that she invited.  

One of them even brought her dad.

Notice the lights?  A first!!  No more boring trunk.  How many years did that take us???

Last but not least are our pumpkins.  I thought we would get away with not carving but the girls asked me several times over the weekend.  So I felt we had to do it to preserve tradition even though it was at the last minute before we went to bed on Halloween night.  

Esther, Me and Abby each did one.  Can you guess whose is whose? 

Done.

Girl things: costumes and heels to church

The best part about Halloween by far is the costumes. Dressing up is so much fun!  Then I would say candy, trick-or-treating, and the parties.  We don't do "spooky" at our house.  I figure there are plenty characters to choose from without having to dip into the "evil" pool.  This year Frozen was all the rage so Abby had been talking about being Elsa for a couple of months.  She was even trying to make her own costume from my stash of fabric when I thought I would surprise her with a "real" dress from Amazon.  It was so worth it!!  We found out she was in good company when we got to the church party and there were 7 other Elsa's, all the same size.  They were quite the group.  Esther was creative and painted her shirt and made her cape with my fabric.  I love it when they do that!!

The latest good news for me is that I wore high heels to church for the first time since my surgery.  I was a little nervous that I wouldn't make it all the way through so I stashed some flats in my church bag.  You can see in the picture that my left foot is a little swollen but I made it all three hours without hurting too much.  The transition to flat feet again was a little painful but it didn't last long.  Phew!  I'm just glad that I'm not wearing tennis shoes with my dresses anymore.  Maxi skirts can only cover so much!!

Oh, the Halloween cuteness!

Although Halloween is a favorite holiday for many, it isn't for me.  I didn't think about it much as a child but as I started having my own family I took issue with how evil and scary were welcomed as good and desirable.  But before you think I'm a complete stick in the mud, we do enjoy the more wholesome aspects.  We don't ever dress goolish or use scary decorations but love to dress up, trick or treat and of course eat unusual amounts of candy.  One of my favorite things is to ooh and aah over the cuteness.

 At Abby's school they had a choreographed dance that each grade had a part.

Abby took this very seriously.

Then each grade paraded around the playground.  

You would have thought Abby was a homecoming princess.

At their class party, each of them got wrapped up like a mummy.

Esther went trick or treating with her friend Caylin.

Bekah (Rapunzel) is spending her evening with Emma (Belle).

And Matthew, who I think has the best costume, was a "Lollipop Kid" with his friends.

I didn't get to see them together before they went out, but I thought it was a great way to play into 

their small stature.

And it was great to have Sarah (Minnie) here to take Abby out

because Dad and I have "retired".

Happy Halloween!!

Good choices and Lake Arrowhead

 Our cowgirls

 I was impressed with Rachel on Halloween.  Her friends were all going to a scary movie but she didn't want to.  So she was willing to stay home with us.  Then her friend Hunter called, who also didn't want to do what his friends were doing, and they decided to take Matthew and Abby our trick-or-treating. 

 It says a lot about who they are. . . good kids!

They had a great time too!

For the next few days, Joseph and I are celebrating our 26th anniversary at Lake Arrowhead.

This is the view from our room.

Niiiiccce

All Hallow's Eve, aka: Halloween

Finally, a picture of our little elf, Matthew.  He's such a good sport.  Everyone seems to give him a hard time about being short.  He decided to just go with it.  What a good guy.


Our little angel.


We didn't have a picture of Rachel before since she was at a drama competition.  She and her friends dressed as the Dora the Explorer characters.  She is "Swiper" the fox.

Can't you just feel the love?

Good thing:  I had chocolate today!!  I haven't had any (on purpose) since June.

It was great, but my tummy and fat cells don't agree.

Ward Halloween party

We had a Halloween party at our church building last night that turned out well.  I had the opportunity to work on the committee (in the end, there were only two of us) that put it together.  Since there are two wards (congregations) and a Chinese branch (smaller congregation), we combined for one big activity.  What's funny is that even though there were three congregations, the number of people there was still less than our one ward back in North Carolina.

This lovely witch and her family have been part of the reason our transition here has gone as well as it has.
 They've been great  to us and for us.

 Rubik's man                                                                                                Sushi roll

Trick-or treat hallway (I still think trunk-or-treat is the best)

Bishop and his wife                                                                                Abby gets her fill

Esther (dressed as herself :) in the YW cake walk

 Bekah with her new friends plus Esther are waiting in line for the YM haunted house.  Matthew's not in any of the pictures because he was busy scaring people in the spook house (I don't do scary anymore).  When it was all over, I was amazed at the mess the spook house made.  They had  big styrofoam blocks as part of their structures that shed all over the place.  I couldn't help but think of Brother Williamson who was responsible for all the buildings in North Carolina.  He would have had a heart attack at the mess.

 Our Elders that we share with the Chinese branch.

Even though Halloween isn't my favorite holiday, I had a good time and was able to meet some more people.  We were even able to bring our neighbors from across the street.  All in all, it was a good night.

parade queen in training

Thankfully, today was a much better day.  The weather was beautiful, sunny, cool and warm at the same time (nice).  I  got to exercise then go with Abby to preschool for her Halloween parade.  The following are pictures of all the cuteness.

The original costume I bought for Abby was a blue "Medieval Princess" dress.  When the kids at home read the label and kept saying she would be a medieval princess, it didn't take Abby long to say that she didn't want to be that.  I'm pretty sure she was catching the "evil" part of med-ieval.  So a pretty pink princess was in order.

Abby got into the parade persona (future parade queen) by waving to people as she passed by.  Also, I learned a lesson about 4 yr-olds and whoop skirts--teach them how to sit before going in public.

Today

About today,....

• loved sleeping in
• loved having the kids home from school
• dishonest people make life difficult for the rest of us (twice today for me)
• after at least a year search, I found a great lamp, yea!!
• shopping, shopping, and more shopping
• everybody else in the city was shopping today too!
• long lines
• lost track of time
• it was all good when I saw the excitement in the faces of my kids as they got ready for trunk-or-treat
• smiles, friends, good food, cute kids
• locked the keys in my car.......

Girly girl Abi

My chipmunks

Girly Esther wanted to be a fairy too.

"Bishop Dad" handing out candy