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?

Girl's Weekend (Part 2)!

I am very happy to report that the rest of our Girl's Weekend was WAY less eventful than the first day!  After we were all rested from our adventure on Friday Night (aka. the cameo from Gas Can Annie), we awoke to a beautiful morning in the Blue Ridge Mountains!

I shot these on my way up to the gym Saturday morning:

Breathtaking! 

After we had sweated a little bit and had a little fortification (by the way of scrambled cheese eggs with sauteed mushrooms--thanks Mom), we made our way up to the Spa!

We lounged at the spa for 6 hours!!!  There were massages, pedicures, facials, manicures, and steam baths--along with lounging in the lounge with herbal tea and a good book--heavenly!  It was a pretty perfect day, let me tell you!

After we were all relaxed, rubbed, and cleaned, we made our way back to our room for some pre-dinner wine and cheese!

(Please disregard the random phones, cameras, maps, and remote controls.)

As I have mentioned before, I love wine--and I was in good company this weekend!  I also am a HUGE fan of cheese!  There was also some yummy hummus and roasted eggplant spread that my Mom picked up at Sticks, which is absolutely yumm-o!!  So, we drank some vino, talked about how relaxed we were, ate some appetizers, then got ready for dinner!  (There is a theme here--eat, drink, rest, eat, drink, rest.)

Along the way, we stopped for some gorgeous pic (the setting was nice too--haha)

 (I totally want to submit this one to www.awkwardfamilyphotos.com )



We had a fantastic dinner at The Copper Mine Bistro and the moseyed on over to the bar down the way for some after dinner drinks before we headed back to our room for dessert  and sparkling wine (see, the theme continues).

Yes, we changed into our pj's before partaking in fruit tart and sparkling wine!  After that, we were so exhausted from our day at the spa (it truly is a rough life) and eating and drinking, we called it a night!

The next day, we drove around the mountain checking out the beautiful views and possible condos or houses that might be for sale (Wintergreen is so conveniently located, I really think someone needs to consider purchasing a vacation home, so that we might all be able to use it :) ). 

We had an absolutely wonderful time and have decided that next time will need to have at least one more day, as we did not even break out Taboo, Backgammon, or crafting activities!  Thank you so much to Mom and Gina for taking Lori and I on this amazing trip!  We are so lucky to have such wonderful Mamas!!

Now...a few pictures of the gorgeous surroundings to leave you with. Enjoy!

 

 **Okay, so it was more than a few, but I couldn't pick--they are all so pretty!

**I forgot to mention that almost the entire time Lori and I were speaking in a very southern drawl twang, which made everyone us laugh quite a bit.  It really is fun to talk all souther-fide (I just made up that word).