All Hallows Eve

Happy Halloween, America!!!

Abby and her cop costume (that she later abandoned.)

The last couple of years, Halloween seems to be over the second our party wraps up.  Never mind the fact that Halloween itself hasn't happened yet - for us, the season ends when the last guest leaves our house.

So, consequently, Halloween itself has been a little 'meh' for us lately.  Kris takes the day off, in order to take pics of the kids' (well, Abby's, at least - the Cannonball's in middle school now) costume parade and parties at school.  I generally get a half-day at work, skip the optional professional development session in the afternoon, and come home to help get kids fed and in costumes before the Trick or Treating begins.

Chestnut Hill costume parade. . . you can spot Abby's total '80s-ishness.

This year, I had to cram a few other things into my already hectic schedule before all the festivities started.  I had a 2 o'clock teeth cleaning appointment at the dentist, and before that I had to buy a new vehicle (I'll touch on that in a later post, though.)  Once I tackled those two things, though, I was able to pick up the girls and head home to get things rolling.

So yeah - here's how our particularly cold and rainy Halloween went down.

Behold. . . .

Ella's smooth criminal

The earlier picture of Abby dressed up as a cop was from very early this morning.  She ultimately changed her mind at the last minute and switched to her '80s costume for the school parade and parties (which Kris was super excited about, since that meant coloring and doing up Abby's hair when she was already running short on time.)  Parenting can be a real bitch sometimes. . .

Kris was able to snap a quick, couple of blurry pics of our niece, Scarlett, as she walked past in her class' costume parade.

She dressed up as her dad for Halloween, which I think is cute.

Sophie, as a Hogwarts student.

Later on in the morning, in Abby's classroom for the Halloween Party.

Party games don't change much over the years - pretty sure I did this in elementary school myself.

What the hell, are those real gourdes?

Cyndi Lauper, gettin' down with some snacks.

Around 6pm-ish, we drove over to the Johnson residence for their annual Trick or Treating Party.  The moms and kids all trick-or-treat around 'the Horseshoe' (the neighborhood around Sweetbrier, that resembles a giant horseshoe) while the dads 'man the fort' (tending a fire, drinking beer, and passing out Halloween candy.)  It's a pretty cool setup.

It was about 36 degrees and raining - f***ing misersable .  Not really ideal for trick-or-treating, but not a single kid there was willing to pass up an opportunity to score a bag of free candy.

(That's Jackson in the giant Pokemon costume.)

We'd take turns huddling around this fire like a bunch of hobos, but it did little aside from making our clothes smell like a campfire.

Preparing for departure around the block.

Cops and Robbers: the Dynamic Duo

Kris is having a lot of fun, here.

Trying to hunt down Alayna (who had run off across the street with some other girls to score some candy.)

Not a lot of folks out and about this evening, that's for damn sure.  As you can see from the picture, here, the grass was starting to get frosted with snow as the temperature continued to drop.  Eventually, the rain completely turned to snow. . . which, you know, is frickin' terrific when you're trying to do something outside with your kids.

This was pretty good for an amber.  Though, as cold as it was outside, I probably should've been drinking a stout.

Later that night, after we returned home so the kids could eat some candy and watch a Halloween movie - you know, 'cause traditions and all that - I let the dog outside to go to the bathroom, and beheld this foreboding spectacle in my backyard.  And so it begins. . .

 - Brian

At the End of October

How we doin', folks.

So here we are at the end of another October, and it's definitely been one for the books.  Kris and I celebrated our 13th year of not getting a divorce, I finally pulled the trigger on a furniture set for the Study, as well as a new car (finally took the old Focus out to pasture), we painted the bridge in the backyard, Alayna had an orchestra concert, Kris and I enjoyed the Whitewood Wine Walk, and we threw a Halloween Party and then it snowed while the kids attempted to Trick or Treat. 

Our leaves are now covered in snow and the temperatures are in free-fall, but morale around here is high.  As Halloween draws to a close, we're entering a two-week period of calm before the coming Holiday storm. 

Here's a look at all the random stuff that went down this month. 

Enjoy.

Wouldn't be the fall without the Girl Scouts whoring out another Cookie Order. . .

Larkin's mom, Shannon, revs up the kids at a Chestnut Hill pep assembly.

(If you look carefully, you can spot our niece, Scarlett, about half way back off to the left, in a greenish-blue shirt, looking at the camera.)

Erik and I ordered a set of custom-made pipes emblazoned with the iconic Freemason square and compass symbol from a pipe-maker in the Ukraine.  They took about a month to get here, but it was well worth the wait.

(Mine's the one on the right - it's beautiful, and smokes really well.)

After two years of dealing with awkward rocking chairs, I finally said 'to hell with it' and purchased a loveseat and two armchairs for the Study.  I spent months browsing furniture in stores and online, and ultimately settled on this set from Wayfair.  I went with something low profile' so as to not distract from the room's decor, and went with a dark charcoal grey to match the aesthetics of the vinyl shelving and other table.

Pretty pleased with how this turned out.  Now all I need is a matching Ikea coffee table that'll compliment the vinyl shelving and I'll be all set.

We sent this picture to our neighbors, Dave and Sherri, after Abby went over to their house to sell cookies only to find that they were downstate for the weekend.

Enjoying a Saturday morning cup of coffee with the dog and the new furniture.

. . . while this goes on in the background.  Frickin' kids. 

The next day, we spent outdoors working on the yard.  I mowed, Kris worked on some of the beds, we started painting the Bridge in the garden with a paint/sealant, and we put the 6th grader on dog poop duty.

Havin' a blast. . .

This took quite some effort to restore.  It had been exposed to the elements for years, so we had to scrub it clean with soap, power-wash it with an industrial strength power-washer we rented from Home Depot, sand it down, then apply the paint/sealer.

The finished product, a few hours later.  Being a home owner sucks.

Celebrating the Lucky 13.

Alayna's 6th Grade school picture.  We let her choose her own background this year.

So back when I ransacked my Granny's house after she passed, one of the things that I walked away with was a vintage, brown trampoline.  The kids had it in the basement for a few years, but over time it got more and more beat up, ultimately to the point where we decided to try and sell it at last month's garage sale.  No one ended up buying it, so we had to drag it to the curb.  After the first day, someone snatched it up, but they didn't take the giant, upholstered foam cover.  I set it out with the garbage the morning of our designated trash pick-up day, and the garbage men didn't take it.  I assumed this was because I had it just setting next to our garbage bins, and it wasn't the scheduled 'large pick up' day.  So, the following week, I was able to cram it into a garbage bin and set it out once again. . . only to find, when I got home, that they had taken everything but the cover.  It was like they were purposely f***ing with me at this point.  Ultimately, after a couple weeks of this, Kris personally drove the damn thing out to the city dump and texted me this picture to prove that it had been disposed of.  I hate garbage men.

Kris purchased and installed some high-end, custom-fit WeatherTech mats in her van, in preparation for the coming winter shittiness.  I'm going to be doing the same with my new vehicle very shortly.

I hooked up the Atari in the living room in order to trouble-shoot it and make sure everything worked okay with it before our Halloween Party.  Alayna's trying her hand at Pac-Man here.

All dolled up for school one morning.  I think she designed her own outfit, here.  Whatever floats your boat, kid.

Watson, enjoying the new Study furniture.

A sunset while Kris and I do some shopping up by the mall.

So remember when Kris and I took the girls (and the dog, and Ella) up to Midland City Forest to observe the fall foliage and snap some pics with my new Canon 77D?  How I had to jet prematurely in order to get to my buddy Trevor's grandma's memorial service in Clare?  Well, to follow up with that, I was able to get there (albeit about ten minutes late), and got to catch up with some of my old high school buddies at the service.  Afterwards, folks had places to be, so I decided to stop off at the Doherty Hotel and enjoy a Guinness (with a shot of whiskey added, of course.)  I love how the Doherty has a St. Patrick's Day countdown thingy in their bar.  That's sooo Clare.

Later that evening, Kris and I attended the tail-end of the Whitewood Wine Walk, where neighbors from up and down the street go house-to-house to sample different foods and wines.  We jumped in at the last house (the Claytons), which was right across the street from ours.  Our kids were both conveniently at other kids' houses for sleepovers, so we go to stay out later and hang out with other adults.  Here's our neighbor Swanson, who happens to be a Lodge brother as well.

Not too bad for a porter, but I still prefer me a stout any day of the week.

They go all-out for Halloween as well. . .

Doing some Halloween party shopping with the Cannonball.  Kris bought some skeleton hand tongs for salads and what not, so of course this happened. . .

Morgan took Abby and Ella, along with his kids, to some BMX park on the other side of town the next day.

   

 (I apologize for the low quality of these videos - he texted me these from his phone.)

After coming home from picking the kids up from school, we noticed that most of the trees from our front yard dropped their foliage.  All at once.

The absolute worst part of fall, right here.

They lost interest in this very, very quickly. . .

Kris and the girls created this '80s-themed wall 'display' for the basement play area in preparation for our Halloween party.

Abby climbing a rope at the Freeland Gymnastics Center.  She's been going there every Tuesday since August, with usually Kris or Meesook taking her (the Colliers' oldest girl is in Abby's gymnastics group.)  This last session of theirs, Ryan and I took the girls, then stopped off at McDonald's for ice cream on the way back.

Abby and Ella, doing something or other with the Girl Scouts (I have no clue, I wasn't there.)

Ordered a record through Discogs this month (a limited, transparent smoke-splatter pressing of Operation Ivy's classic album), and it came very strangely packaged.  Thorough and secure, which was much appreciated, but totally bizarre.

The seller padded either side of my album with cut up pieces from other LPs. . . such as this album cover.

. . .and on the other side, the back or inside gatefold cover of whatever the hell this is.

Aside from our '80s costume theme, Abby wanted to team up with Ella for a partner costume idea.  They settled on cops and robbers, so Ella dressed up as a robber with Abby as a the police officer.  Kris found a high-end children's cop outfit on Facebook Marketplace (surprise, surprise) and was able to get it for next to nothing.

Abby's cop costume.

The night before our big Halloween Party, Kris washed the skeleton she had picked up from the store to use for our meat platter.  I had to take a pic of this 'cause it totally looks like he's sitting in a bath.

Kris and Alayna sort through a couple hundred Chestnut Hill shirt/hoodie orders.  Kris spear-headed this clothing order for the PTO, and now our house looks like this. . .

I hate the PTO so damn much. . .

Snapped a quick pic of the fall foliage down Mt. Vernon street, which I walk down when I take the dog for our afternoon constitutional.  Walking the dog with a pipe and a podcast is one of the highlights of my day, and these fall colors certainly don't hurt.

Alayna's 6th Grade Orchestra Concert at Northeast.  They were set up in the gym along with the band, and took turns with the other performing a handful of songs.

Abby grabs some ice cream in the cafeteria while we wait for Alayna to finish putting away her instrument and things in the orchestra room.

After the ice cream break, we reconvened in the theater where the Choir was to perform a handful of songs.  Alayna can be seen in her orchestra outfit, towards the center.  And yes, I'm well-aware the seats we got for this sucked - we sent Abby in to snag us some seats (since Kris and I were volunteering for the event, directing traffic), so of course Abby picked some right up front. . . behind a f***ing piano.

Abby's 4th Grade school picture.  Hers came a few weeks after her sisters, as we had to schedule some retakes - her first one was all sorts of jacked up.

A very rushed, last-minute, 'oh f***, we forget to do this' pumpkin-carving session.  Note the absence of numerous SLR pictures - we threw ourselves at this in a panic, and Kris had to leave after a half hour or so in order to go to a Girl Scout meeting.  Total frickin' chaos this year, folks.

Sketching out a stencil.  Alayna used Kris' phone to look up a design to use.

Abby, as always, picked out a super-intricate, high-level-of-skill design for hers, and refused to be talked out of it.  You'll see the results shortly.

My pumpkin this year.  I cut the top of a gourd and turned it into a pipe, then carved my pumpkin to look as if he were smoking it.  This particular angle isn't the best, and I had to shove the 'pipe' stem pretty far into the pumpkin's teeth so that it would stay in there, but I think you get the idea.  Like the pumpkin seeds serving as pipe tobacco?  A nice touch, I think.

The finished products, left to right:  Kris' moon/stars pumpkin, Alayna's 'marshamello' (however the hell you spell that guy's name) pumpkin, mine, and Abby's attempt at a Mickey Mouse silhouette. . .

And THAT was our October, America.  Happy Halloween.

- Brian