Happy Haunting

I was worried about Halloween falling on Sunday, but we have had Halloween all week and I'm ready to greet November. Thursday Jack and I dressed up for his preschool parade and party. Friday the boys trick or treated at the Outlets and came to the YMCA Halloween party (which was HUGE). The outlets lasted about thirty minutes and the weather was gorgeous. Griffin quickly understood the process of trick or treating. One saleswoman gave coloring pages instead of candy and Griffin threw a class nine tantrum. He slithered out of my arms and threw himself on the ground. We thanked the lady and took that darn coloring page out of his jack o' lantern! Saturday we trunk or treated with our ward (church friends and families) and today we visited the ladies next door. With all the events we gathered and passed out a disgusting amount of candy. My best reward was the fun size peanut butter M&M's from Jack.

Jack and Griffin were pirates this year, I was Pippi (with a pretty great costume, but no great pictures. Can you see Mr. Nielsen on my shoulder?) and Steve was Pippi's Papa. Jack decided to change things up and he alternated Skeleton Pirate with Captain Hook. Happy Halloween and good night!

Howell Family Reunion

These pictures show the bare minimum. I completely dropped the ball with picture taking! We had so much fun. From the moment the gang gathered at my place in Chicago to the moment right before we got in our old jalopy in Amy's driveway. We played and explored Chicago for two and a half days and journeyed to Michigan to see beautiful Ada. Steve and I are both more taken with Ada than Chicago. Ada is the charming lake place (absolutely made for Fall) and Chicago is awesome for a week vacation of exploring, but it can become a drag with way too much traffic and no outdoor recreation to speak of. Although I'm still lovin it!

Highlights include the visiting the Field Museum, seeing the Indiana shoreline, Amy and Rachael's shared birthday with a festive Barbie cake ala Steve and a really awesome day at the Friedrick Meijer Gardens. Oh and those are not at all in order. The most disheartening of all was watching mom and Amy wave and run after the car as we drove away. I went from maddening laughter to torrential tears. Split second swing. Steve tried to comfort me through laughter. This reaction is like clockwork every time I say goodbye.