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!