- In the spirit of all things spooky and scary... -

...HAPPY HALLOWEEN, witches [not to be confused with b*tches]!!! ;) 

This mommy mummy has been in the fall/Halloween/crunchy leaves/Thanksgiving mood since ... mid-August [??] ... when I pot-planted our first batch of mums, so it ain't no shock-a that I went a smidge overboard with Harper's first Halloween.  FOUR rounds of fun, beginning with:

Round uno = a mini-roadtrip down the River Road + a visit to Eckert's in Grafton.  A miserable mist kept us from staying out too long with the baby, but we did what we needed to do and saw what we needed to see.  Finally whipped out the black rhinestone bow and black sequined shoes after the waitress at lunch complimented, "Aw, your little guy is so well behaved!" in addition to throwing out a multitude of other pronouns from the he/him/his family.  [Girl-mom tip #42: If the pink blankets don't give it away, resort to a bow.  Girl-mom tip #43: If the bow doesn't give it away, the stranger/onlooker is an idiot.]

[Life has taken a 180 since our visit to the pumpkin patch last year... I can't even remember what our days were like back then!]

Round dos = taking the Bear's pics in her bear costume.  This deserves a whole section, because, obviously.........

CUTENESS OVERLOAD.  Please tell me this is more than "just a face a mother could love"... :-* :-*  When discussing what Harper could be for Halloween back in August, my brother was like, "A bear! Duhhhhh." ...And so it stuck. Maybe next year we'll go for something more feminine...and then take her back to see that waitress in Grafton...[jay kayyyy, #notbitter]  

ANYWAY... ^^ Photo sesh only made possible thanks to an awesome "behind the scenes" photography assistant who continually repositioned/tweaked/fluffed the bear.  I'm also thrilled he came along considering he swooped in like a throat-sweeping pro when Harper snuck a brown, crunchy leaf up to her mouth and ingested half of it before we could get it away.  We looked like a bunch of ridiculous redneck retards holding a gagging/spitting/choking COSTUMED infant upside down in the subdivision common ground.  #parentingwin #alwaysexciting #bearseatmeatnotleaves 

^^ Back to the photo sesh. Annnd I'll try that leaf-eating trick again! ...How 'bout that yellow smooth one over there? :|

Round tres = Friday-night Halloween Eve + answering our door for trick-or-treaters! Uncle Garett came over for dinna and dranks and we took Bear to a couple neighbors' houses in her costume.  Ohhhh, the irony of a fat skeleton.  

Drumroll for round cuatro [pronounced QWA-TROW; I know it's been a long @$$ time since most of us took Spanish 101 class] = I hypothesized correctly that our attention span for trick-or-treating would be very short this year, but we managed to hit all the VIP's [aka Grandmas and Grandpas and Great Grandma and Great Grandpa] before any major meltdowns ensued.  

Trick-or-treat, Uncle Blake! Your new craft beer/wine bar in Carlinville is the bomb!!!

Annnd zonked!!! 

Alright, I'm getting bat-sh*t crazy and way too chatty so that's enough for today... The Bear and I are off to the ghost-ery store [after I quickly change my outfit and throw on some make-up so fellow food-shoppers don't think I'm still dressed up; this troll is authentic, yo! #reallifeproblems]  

Hope you goblins and ghouls had a happy holiday! :)