I'm Not The Only One

If you've been a follower here at the Pines, you know I love October and Halloween and decorate crazy for the holiday.  Maybe I'm weird to do this but I find it fun. Until I have to take it all down anyway! Well, I know I'm not the only one.  Driving around town has shown me there are crazier people than me! I'm already planning for next October when we have a family reunion here and have some wild things in store.  Last week we drove down to Mohican State Park to visit my friend, Kim, who's family goes camping there every October for 2 weeks.  They, and all the other campers, put up elaborate decorations for the annual contest.  Kim's done some pretty crazy ones and has won many times too.  We noticed the other campers have upped their game this year.  It was fun seeing what people dream up!  Kim's family did an Egyptian theme.  We saw it in the daytime, but I saw a pic of it at night, and it really was pretty cool. Here's a shot of it during the day:: 

They built a pyramid!  Skeleton mummies abound!  At night it's all lit up with a black light inside the pyramid.

The skeletons were pretty cool!  I'll find out next week at work how they did with the contest.  She said I could borrow a few of here decorations from past times and I might take her up on that!  One year she had a castle with a fire breathing dragon!  Do you decorate?  Living in the country we don't get trick or treaters, so my outside is more sedate:

A few ghosts hanging around.  Ignore the green giant garbage can!

Pumpkins and mums.

I thought this mum was cute!  In a final note, I finally got my 2024 blog book printed!  I've always used the blog to print or share book company.  However, they don't do it anymore and I went with Pixie books.  

They did a great job, and the photos inside really came out nice! I highly recommend them.  I have been blogging for 17yrs and have all the books that are my way of keeping a journal.  Not sure what to do with them but I figure my kids may want to read them after I'm in heaven...if I make it to heaven! Ha!

Continue to have a fun, happy, beautiful, October!  Make some silly treats! Enjoy!

Hocu Pocus

 No, I'm not talking about the movie.  We saw the Hocus Pocus house when we were in Salem, Mass this past Summer.  Believe it or not that movie isn't a favorite of mine. 

Hello Hocus Pocus house!  So why the title of this post?  Well, yesterday we had the family over for our annual Halloween/Fall gathering.  I mentioned before that our Chicago group would not be here, but it was still fun with just our gang.  The weather was fabulous and I'm praying that God will keep this weather in his YaYa files for next year when we have a family reunion here in October.  So here are some familiar faces of the day:

Our son Phil and his girls, Alexis and Rae.  Yes, dear Phil is our grayest haired kiddo...our silver fox! Ha! His girls are getting so old now too! Lexi, 19, Rae 17.

Jordan and Phil.

Jordan and is girlfriend, Britteny watching the Ohio State game...which Ohio State won.

Jack, Jackie, Cameron, and Anthony and who's the witch with the green face? No, not me but our good friend Bryn! She had another party to go to but we were glad she was able to come here first.

This little vampire is our little Hazel.  She's my daughter-in-law's daughter's daughter...huh? Well, I could say our son's step granddaughter and our step great granddaughter.  But I really don't like the step part..they are all our grands!  Great and really great! Ha! And we just found out our oldest granddaughter, Driana and her hubby Jonathan, are expecting their first baby!  They've been trying for a long time, so everyone is super excited for them.  They couldn't make it yesterday so hopefully we will see them in November. 

Our son, Jack, with Hazel's little sister, Tatem.  Or Tato as we call her. She's enjoying her finger sucker!

Daughter-in-law, Evelyn with the girls and of course, grand dog Kip. 

Anthony and Cameron throwing the football around.  The weather couldn't have been more perfect with cool and dry and so comfy out!

I had a few little crafty things for the littles to play with. Hazel was coloring her masterpiece!

This is Lexi's boyfriend John with Rae on the other side for a photo moment.

We had a table set up in the living room so whoever wanted to watch the game could also eat and enjoy it. Worked out great! Britteny liked it! She's a big Ohio State fan!

Everyone eventually made it outdoors and enjoyed playing with the littles,

Catching a football,

Eating on the deck,

The gang made it up to the fence to pet the neighbor's alpaca, Beano. This was Hazel's first alpaca pet and she thought he was sooooo soft!  The day was fun, and the food turned out pretty good if I do say so myself!  We had my special Greek chicken, sloppy joes, pasta salad, mac n' cheese, witches' fingers..aka bread sticks, fruit salad, chips, chocolate cake that turned out so cute, but I forgot to take a pic of, apple dessert, and then some brains for good measure:

Pumpkin brains anyone? (actually, orange Jello, not pumpkin but it was tasty anyway!) So that's a wrap for this year.  We still have a half of a month left and plenty of time for more fun.  Our trees haven't reached peak color because of our earlier warm temps and the drought that still holds us hostage.  I was sure that having an event here at the Pines would break the no rain time since it usually does when I try to have an outdoor activity.  Well, I'm grateful for it being so nice.  I hope everyone has a good week. Go out and crunch in some leaves, carve a pumpkin, see something spooky, and get that candy ready for trick or treat! We don't get trick or treaters out here in the country so I'm going to Chicago in a few weeks to spend it with Midge. We have some treats and a few tricks that hopefully will be blog worthy.  Might have something to do with a golf cart and a couple of witches....stay tuned! 

And The Rains Came Down..Finally!

 We got rain!  It started in the early hours this morning and it's just for today but holy cow, I'm so glad to see it.  What a dry spell we've had.  The summer temps that have bled into October are supposed to go also.  Again, I'm so glad!  Now, I'm not wanting snow or anything, but a cool 60de during the day will be welcome.  We still have a couple of outdoor projects to finish before it gets too cold.  We did start to gather some wood for the furnace that hopefully won't be needed for a bit yet.  We don't usually burn wood until it's below 30de.  The electric furnace does a good job until then. 

We order the wood from the city, and they bring the dump trucks full. It's $85 a load and well worth it. The blue tarp behind it has wood too that some friends gave us. Last year we went through 6 loads. This is 3 loads here and depending on how the cold gods blow, we'll probably need more. The splitter gets a workout as well as us!  In the vein of October fun, this past Saturday we took a little ride to Butler, Ohio to go to the Prairie Peddler

festival.  The weather was warm, so we went as early as possible, but it was really jammed packed with folks like us just wanting a nice fall adventure.  It was a little overwhelming with the crowds and there are over 200 vendors!  I didn't even take one photo.  Shame on me!  It's a cute and fun time but I wasn't feeling super good that day.  But we did enjoy seeing all the crafts and things people have created.  The food is usually good too, but we didn't even try that.  Just too hot and Jack and I weren't that hungry.  I did manage to buy one thing though.  Did I need it? Well, probably not, but anticipating our family reunion next October I caved in and bought it.  Jack agreed it was a nice purchase.

It looks cute here and its metal and will last long and it's flat so hanging it in the garage for storing will be easy.  (I hope!)  This Saturday we're going to have the family over for our annual fall get together. This year my sister and her family aren't coming.  We'll miss them but hopefully we'll have a fun time with just us.  So much going on and not enough days to do it all! (Even a long month like October!)  Finally, I'll end with the fullish moon from last night. Getting a moon shot is hard but I'm trying to learn how to capture a good one!

Zeroed in on just the moon.

But the rain clouds were just moving in and the sky looked more like this.  Have a good week and even though I'm a few days late, Welcome October!