Happy Halloween!

Curious George and the Man with the Yellow Hat (MWYH) would like to wish you all a Happy Halloween!

George and MWYH did their trick-or-treating last night at our church trunk-or-treat. They had a blast walking from car to car and taking in the creative decorations. While Cal was enjoying watching the candy pile up in his bag, Crewe was admiring the fog machines and haunted trunks.

Here are a few shots from a perfect night - 75 degrees and no wind, just the smell of apple cider and popcorn.

Our trunk. The boys and I had fun making the "spirit jugs."

When the boys got tired of walking, they handed out
candy to the other trunk-o-treaters.

Mr. Jack-O-Lantern and George.

Spooktacular Festivities

Halloween is the much anticipated first "bookend" holiday of the holiday season at our house. The boys are really into this it this year -- age 3 seems to be the magic age when kids start to get it. This past week has been full of fun activities leading up to the ward Trunk-or-Treat tomorrow night.

Baking

On Sunday, Cal and I made pumpkin chocolate chip cupcakes - yum!
I used honey instead of sugar and the still tasted great.

Pumpkin Patch

"I want to drive." "No, I'm driving." "Okay, we'll both drive."

Cal's preschool class
Can you tell it was like 90 degrees outside?

Fun with stickers at the patch

The petting zoo was a hit.

Wicked Library Story Time

Wendy the Friendly Witch flew into the library on her
broomstick for a very special story time. Crewe was a bit
freaked out, but Cal sucked it all in as evidenced
by the pirate patch below.

Fall Festivals

The man in the yellow hat just before leaving for his

preschool fall festival. His usual "George" (aka Crewe)
wasn't available, so he had to take his stuffed Curious George.

Here's George at his kindermusik party. I was afraid he
wouldn't let me put on his costume, but he actually
helped me put it on!

Here's a shot of the whole class. Miss Brenlie,
his teacher, is dressed as the pumpkin.

6 Things that Make Me Smile

1. Cal's commentary.

Here's a recent sampling:

• "Mom, I want to go to the moon. I need a really, really tall ladder."
• "Hey, those cookies need a lot more snow (sugar)."
• "Look, Mom, I'm a blast-off man." (wearing his safety goggles from Lowe's and his Bob the Builder hat).
  

2. Crewe eating corn on the cob.
We seriously have to limit his corn consumption. He asks for it constantly!

3. Notes from my hubby.
Like this one that appeared recently on the cord of my flat iron:
Let me just admit it now -- if our house ever burns down, it's my fault. I have a problem remembering to always shut off small electronic appliances. This is the reason that almost every appliance we own has an auto-shut off. Well, my hair iron doesn't have an auto-shut off so it gets to wear cool jewelery like this "unplug me" tag.

4. Kelly working with Crewe.
Notice who's wearing the bib in this shot. Learn by example, right?

5. High Temperatures below 100.
Finally, we're out of hibernation season and enjoying life outside again.

6. Primary Children.
My new church job is being the chorister for the primary kids in our ward. I feel a bit intimidated never having served in primary before (or in music for that matter). Sunday was my first time in my new assignment and the kids put me totally at ease with their smiles, enthusiasm and sense of humor. I think I'm going to like it.

Hail to Autumn

Arizona has been our home for seven years now and I've never felt like summer was too long... until this year. There's just something wrong about 105 degree days in October.

I decorated for Halloween last week thinking that pumpkins and ghosts would at least make it feel cooler and more like autumn. I even made homemade chili, a fall conference tradition at our house. The house looked and smelled festive, but the temperature wasn't... until yesterday when we got this:

A crazy hail and rain storm that dropped the temperature 30 degrees.

Fortunately, we didn't get too much damage from the ping pong ball-sized hail and washes that became rivers. A beautiful rainbow appeared after all the machine-gun sounding hail. You can see it's reflection on the mountain.
We are now on day two of temperatures reaching just the 80s and it feels, well, like fall in Arizona. Welcome fall, I've missed you.