Halloween!

Greg and I took Holly trick-or-treating over in an area of Richmond, known as The Fan--Hanover Avenue is THE place to go for a truly out of this world feast for the eyes (and tummy) on Halloween.  It is amazing to see all of the row houses Halloweened up, EVERYONE in costume--really a neat sight to behold.

Before we left for our adventure over to Hanover Ave., I had to get my own little treats ready for the trick-or-treaters in our neighborhood!  I don't want our house to get egged!  Several weeks ago, I was at Target and picked up some cute packs of pencils (Snoopy, Smurf, Hello Kitty), that I thought would be a neat alternative to candy, to hand out.  Greg convinced my that we might be in danger of some tricks if kids rang the bell, and got a pencil, rather than some candy, so I acquiesced and picked up some Reese's cups.  Of course I wanted to make cute little "Pencil-Candy-Packs" for our trick-or-treaters!  Here is what I did:

 I started with pencils and Reese's cups,

 brought out my ribbon stash,

tied them in little bundles,

 

and viola!  A Pencil-Candy-Pack for each trick-or-treater!

With that out of the way, Greg and I could take Elvis out for a little fun.

So, we made our way over to The Fan, and after several minutes and lots of turns later, we found a parking spot and then made our way over to Hanover Ave.  What is really neat about how they do it on Hanover, is everyone is outside!  They make these great venues for giving out candy--

 A Blood Bank

 A Ghost House

A Pirate Ship

Then, there are all of the people outside!  Masses of trick-or-treaters, parents, dogs, strollers, wagons--big kids, little kids, adults, babies, you name it, they are there!  Most in costume!  I loved the "group" costumes...

 The Flintstones, Meet The Flintstones... (Wilma, Betty, Pebbles, and Bam Bam were around somewhere)

The Chinese Dragon made several rounds up and down the street,

which was really cool.

Then there were the clever/interesting costumes of the evening...

 I guess this is Ice Man?  He kept lunging through the crowd, coming up to kids and scaring them, then running away.  I love the kid in the brown shirt behind him--here is a close up of his face--he is like, "what the...?"

 Holy package Batman...  I mean, I saw Robin--proudly strutting his stuff,

on the lookout for Batman.

I love the man dressed as woman riding a bike through the throngs of people.

Along the way, we ran into some folks that we recognized (though barely...as they were in costume)!

There was Dash Incredible (aka Carter)

 Dash brought along his lovely friend, Ariel (aka Virginia)--don't you love the red hair?

She was SO excited about trick-or-treating and the little Block Party that was happening all around her.  She had on these plastic shoes that clip-clopped all the way down the sidewalk, I am pretty amazed that she did not bite it along the way--if it were me, it would have been skinned knees galore.

Carter, on the other hand, was rather overwhelmed by the whole experience.  Given how Robin looked earlier in the evening, I can't say that I blame him.

Here are some other cuties that I saw throughout the evening--these are children I don't know and randomly took their pictures.  I'm sure their parents were wondering who the wierdo was that was taking pictures of their kids--that wierdo is me.

Oh wait, I do know that last cutie!  Sweet Holly Belle/Elvis!

Hope you all had a Happy Halloween!  Anyone have any good costume sightings?

Pumpkin Patch

Over the weekend, we set out for the Pumpkin Patch--"we" meaning me, Virginia (niece), Carter (nephew), Lori (sister-in-law), Gary (brother-in-law) and several other friends and family members.  Our destination was the Ashland Berry Farm.

Pretty much one of "the" places to go to get your pumpkin.  We started out with lunch in Ashland (The Center of the Universe, in case you didn't know) at Homemades by Suzanne--yumm-o!  Awesome sandwiches, salads, deviled eggs...Delish!  Carter enjoyed the peanut butter and jelly on a homemade whole wheat roll.

After lunch we headed on over to the Pumpkin Patch...well, let me tell you on a gorgeous day, 2 weekends before Halloween, after lunch (and naptime for many youngsters), the Ashland Berry Farm is packed!!!  The line for the hayride into the patch was gi-normous!! 

I immediately went to check out the line for the doughnuts and luckily that wasn't too terrbily long.  So, decided to get some doughnuts while we waited...and while we waiting for the doughnuts--which line wasn't anywhere near as long as the hayride line and still seemed to take forever, we decided to "pick" pumpkins from the already picked "patch," eat doughnuts, and call it a day.

So, that is what we did!  The doughnuts were yumm-o!  Didn't take any pics--hands were full with doughnuts, gourds, etc.  But they were really good--I did share my doughnuts...I promise. 

You might remember my gourds from here, so now you know where they came from!

Even though we didn't make it into the actual pumpkin patch, per se, I did manage to snap some pics of Carter and Virginia, perched on some very large pumpkins! 

Even though it didn't go how we had planned, we still had fun  getting some pumpkins (or gourds, in my case), eating (always a fun actvity), and being together!

I'm off tomorrow on a Girl's Wine Weekend in Wintergreen with my mom, sister-in-law (Lori) and Gina (Lori's step-mom)!!  Can't wait and will have lots of pics and stories to tell, I am sure!!!