Moving on, as time has since beginning this post, I am in full Halloween swing here now. I\u2019ve pulled over ten large storage bins out of the attic and have begun decorating. I was forced to pause though due to the nor\u2019easter over this past weekend. I left up the few decorations that I had already hung, but decided against hanging any more because of the winds they were forecasting. Happily the winds were less than feared and we had absolutely no damage here aside from some leaves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are headed to Maine for my sister-in-law\u2019s Halloween party over the weekend. It is always a nice time and it\u2019s fantastic to see all the cousins together at the same time all in one place \u2013 generally only happens once per year. And the biggest joy of all is seeing my son and wife, and my awesome grandkids! My daughter and son-in-law and my other two grandkids will be going up as well so they\u2019ll all be together for a couple of days which is so wonderful for my heart. Then our party here is the following weekend. As of now it looks like my son\u2019s family will be coming down here for our party which will be fantastic \u2013 they haven\u2019t been to our party since 2022 so we are all psyched!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have so much to do between now and then, complicated by a three-day trip to Maine immediately followed by two full days of watching my two grandkids Monday and Tuesday. That really just leaves Wednesday through Friday to get all the decorations up. That may not sound like much but trust me, it is! The lights alone take almost a half day to install. The cemetery also takes almost a half day between the \u201cheadstones\u201d and the finicky animatronics I use in it. And of course, ordering\/getting all the food, drinks, party favors, pinata, pumpkins, candy\u2026. etc., etc., etc.! I know, I know \u2013 wah-wah-wah!! I\u2019m not crying though \u2013 it is a labor of love!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Time to get this up and posted. I\u2019ve just returned from the Maine Halloween party. Friday night I was blessed to take both my children, both their spouses, and all five of my grandchildren out to dinner. Having the eleven of us alone altogether at the same time was amazing for me!! The party the next day was also incredible \u2013 we had all the uncles and aunts, nieces and nephews, and cousins there. Well, not all but most of; there were some that could not make the trip up from RI and at least a couple in Maine who were unable to attend. But that aside, it was an awesome party and all the kids had a blast. It was culminated by a hayride; my brother in law has a huge two axle trailer that he lines with bales of hay and hitches to his truck. He then loads around 30-35 of us (so many little ones squeezed into the middle it was impossible to be sure) onto the trailer and tows us down dirt road after dirt road through the dark woods of Maine. It is cold and bumpy and torturous at times and is a total blast. Unlike previous years, we did not lose anyone off the trailer though we came close!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And just like that, in a blink of an eye, the weekend with Maine family is over and done. Like much of life, enjoy it in the moment because the moment is over in an instant. The good news though, is that my kids and grandkids are coming down from Maine this coming weekend for our Halloween party! They\u2019ve not been here for the last two years so this is a big deal for us! I am absolutely wracking my brain trying to figure out how to make it bigger and better than ever for them. It\u2019ll be a tough mix as there are soooo many younger children who are still frightened by something as simple as a plastic skeleton, never mind a twisting shrieking animatronic!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can tell I\u2019ve been busy because here it is the day before Halloween; our Halloween party is over and done and is now just a cauldron of wonderful memories. My daughter in law and my three grandkids came down on Thursday night and I was blessed to enjoy them being here until Sunday morning when they had to head home. It was so wonderful having them all here; I missed my son but he had some things going on at work and also had the dog so\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The party was awesome: we had 20 adults and 17 kids here and 99% of them were family \u2013 siblings and cousins. There was laughter and screams and just a great time. We did the pinata, which sadly was not broken open by a hit; the tie wrap used to hold it up tore loose from the pinata and it fell to the ground unopened. But I\u2019ve done my share of these in the past and always have a back up plan. Once it fell to the ground I grabbed it and held it high ad gave them all a chance to get ready and on a count of three, tore it open and shook out all the candy to squeals of delight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Next we tried pumpkin carving but there was not a lot of interest in that so I got them all inside the house so I could go hide the bones. I have these plastic bones – leg bones, arm bones, foot, etc. \u2013 that I\u2019ve numbered one through twenty. I hide them throughout the path through the woods and then instruct them to go find one \u2013 only one per child though \u2013 and then return them to me for a prize. This year\u2019s prize was a 3D printed articulated mummy in a cute sarcophagus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After that, we got them back inside (or out front) so I could go scatter the two huge bags of candy throughout the woods path for them to go find \u2013 in the dark \u2013 with flashlights \u2013 amdist the ghosts and demons and zombies in the woods!! Great fun and always a hit with the kids. After that, suddenly pumpkin carving became a big interest so I turned on the back floodlights and let them carve away!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So it was that another Halloween party entered the books. It was made immeasurably better for me due to my Maine pack being here once again, sadly minus my son. But it was wonderful none the less and I now have yet one more amazing memory to cherish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Moving on, as time has since beginning this post, I am in full Halloween swing here now. I\u2019ve pulled over ten large storage bins out of the attic and have begun decorating. I was forced to pause though due to the nor\u2019easter over this past weekend. I left up the few decorations that I had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3048,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"ocean_front_end_style_editor":"no","ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life","category-humanity","entry","has-media"],"yoast_head":"\n