A Look Back // Halloween

Happy Halloween to all you ghosts and ghouls, witches and werewolves, Anas and Elsas out there!  I love this day so much - for excited little kids at bus stops with their backpacks stuffed with their costumes, for parades at daycare and school, for neighborhood streets that will soon be lit up like a storybook, and little beggars dashing from one porch to the next with their practiced "trick or treat."  This October has been even more exciting this year with the Cubs still playing baseball (and winning last night!), but I'm excited about a travel day today so we can come home after trick-or-treating, spread our candy out like thieves, and warm up by the fire with a little Charlie Brown on TV.  It's the official kickoff to the holiday season and I'm not sad about it.  

And because I can hardly wait to get Cruz and Mila in their costumes this evening, a little look back at Halloweens past...

   

Happy Halloween and tricks-and-treats tonight!  

a hartman hike

It wouldn't be fall without a weekend hike at one of our favorite spots in Cedar Falls.  We have been blessed with a fall season of beautiful weekends this month and exploring the trails at Hartman Reserve is about as pretty as it gets around here.  Cruz and I played the five sense game and took turns describing our surroundings with one of the five as we walked.  I see a squirrel high up in that tree.  I hear the wind blowing through the trees.  I feel the leaves crunch under my feet.  I smell fresh air and falling leaves.  My favorite feature of this treasure this time of year, though, is that you can actually experience the trees shedding their leaves.  It was a breezy day this Sunday, but we were sheltered within the canopy of golden trees, and as we explored from one trail to the next, you couldn't help but notice hundreds of leaves dancing to the ground from above.  It was literally raining golden leaves all around us, and it was a beautiful sight. 

It was warm outside and Mila fittingly had her bright red boots on when she came upon a rain puddle in the middle of the bike trail.  So as the boys checked out their discovery of "Bullfrog Bayou," Mila and I had a little fun getting just a teensy bit wet.  And then we found a birch tree with some very Christmasey limbs for the taking, and ended our excursion with what might be our very last trip of the season to Four Queens for ice cream.  It was a good day.

Enjoy this last weekend of October, everyone.  We are hoping for some fun outside, three Cubs wins at Wrigley, a bowl of soup, and a steamy cup of cider.  Fill it with all things fall, folks!