Bye-Bye Boo Day!

Halloween is over, finished, done. I love Halloween...fall leaves, apple cider, pumpkins, candy.

Monday, Mari had Harvest Hoedown at school, complete with games and a bounce-house. She came home with a tattoo and a little pumpkin that she "found" in the haystack. She loves that pumpkin (about the size of a grapefruit) and carried it around for 2 days. The first thing she asks for in the morning is her "bumpkin."

I took Friday off and took Mari to school for her Halloween party (after stopping by the ER to see some old friends) and came home to clean house. I was feeling a little guilty about that (taking the day off but still taking her to school). She must have felt out-of-sorts with all the happenings and daycare called me after 2 hours because she was crying uncontrollably and they had never really seen her cry, other than regular toddler-tantrums (major GUILT now!). But they were okay with her there, just wanted to check with me to see if I thought she might be getting sick or if she had a bad night. She was okay for lunch and nap and I got there right as nap was finishing and stayed for the Halloween snack.

She was definitely not herself the rest of the day (although the look on her face when I showed up at naptime was worth every bit of guilt earlier in the day!). We skipped the trick-or-treating, other than to visit our neighbors, and went to dinner with my parents. Mari was not real thrilled with the waitresses in their costumes and she wasn't too sure about Uncle Todd's costume when we stopped by there. All in all, a confusing and probably upsetting day.

She fell asleep almost immediately on the way home but was rudely awoken by what would have probably been a very horrific accident. Someone pulled out in front of us (I was going 60) with no lights on, I had to stand on the brakes. Luckily, the brakes worked. Poor Ollie-dog slammed into the dash (he's fine) and Mari woke up screaming (thank God for carseats!). Besides shaking uncontrollably, I was fine too. My shoulders were a little sore, the left from the seatbelt, the right from my attempt to grab Ollie. I'm already a pretty nervous driver on Halloween, the rest of the 20 minute drive was intense.

Anyway, today was much better. Mari had swim lessons again this morning (LOVES them) and then took an almost 3 hour nap (did I mention that I LOVE swim lesson days too!). When she woke up, she was her normal self again. Thank goodness. Uncle Todd came down and mowed, weed-eated, packed up the hose for winter, etc. because he was "bored and it was a nice day." Big THANKS for that one. Now if I could get the inside of the house looking as good as the outside.

Onto some Halloween pix (there are a few other in here too).

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