Halloween

I love fall.  I love Halloween. Specifically, I love them both more now that I have children.  There is something about the joy, innocence and first-timeness of it all that allows me to appreciate more deeply the wonders of this time of year.  We have acorns in our driveway...thousands of acorns...thousands of acorns that are even chucked down upon our heads by the mischievous squirrels overhead.  So, when Christian got to take home the "Share Bag" from preschool, we ended up stashing a small ziplock bag filled with a half a dozen acorns into it.  Along with the required 3 clue questions:
1) They are brown.
2) They fall out of trees.
3) Squirrels eat them.
According to Christian's preschool teacher, when the kids finally guessed "Acorns", Christian continued saying, "No!"   I think my preschooler is onto something, though. There is something interesting about keeping em guessing, right?

Our busy October was filled with all things fall and festive.  We had trips to the Pumpkin Patch...











There was pumpkin carving...


Christian was not so keen on the feel of the pumpkin guts...and I'm pretty sure my parents have similar photos of me and my "totally disgusted" face from many a Halloween



The good news is that he warmed up to it!



There were parties...









There was Trick or Treating...








It was all as colorful and fun and crazy as I thought it would be. Except maybe the crazy part.  It was CRAZY. As in crazy, busy and sometimes stressful.  Fun was definitely had, but at a bit of a cost.  With many Daddy-free nights in October, I was juggling being Mom of two, my ballet teaching job and a very busy event schedule for my Event Design and Coordination business.  It was a lot. And I'm not quite done yet.  One more big wedding to go this weekend and then I get a little break.  Unfortunately when I'm juggling so many things, I feel like I'm failing a little at all of them. The guilt gets to me: Did I do enough with my boys today?  Did I do enough for Elijah? Did I do enough for my clients?  ...Did I do anything for me?    I guess one benefit to being an "older" Mom (Oh, God. Did I really say that?) is that I know when I'm at my limit and when I need a break- for everyone's sake.  So, at the suggestion of a close girlfriend, I took a break. A 24 hour, Mom is on a break, Break.  Our babysitter really gave me the deal of all deals to stay for one full day, while I took off with my girlfriend for one night at a near-by, luxury hotel. Room service. In room movies. Girl Talk.  It.was.Heaven.  I have no pictures or proof that this event actually happened, and considering the fact that within one hour of being home I was launched back into life-full-speed. So, it's already becoming a distant memory.  It's such a happy, peaceful distant memory though. And it came with the pact made with my friend that this WILL happen again. And it will happen with more frequency than it has in the past (never).  My friend found herself talking to her daughter about her 24 hour getaway.  When confronted with the fact that her daughter didn't want her to go, she asked her: How many days in week are there? How many days in a month? In a year? You've been alive for 6 years, so how many days is that...something like 2000, right?  Do you think Mommy deserves 1 day  off out of every 2000?  Which was met with a reluctant, "Yes."

Yeah...we'll be taking another "day off" sooner than 2000 days from now. Promise.