I attempted to decorate the front of the house a little for the Halloween season. I got these two skeletons to hang from our front tree. Beena however, had a whole other idea. She picked up one of them and held it ever so gently and took it for a walk. At times they looked as if they were dancing the way she was holding onto him. It was cute. Shoobee came to her rescue after one of the skeletons legs broke off. She kept calling it her robot... oh well, close enough!
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| Beena walks her new friend the "robot?" |
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| Big brother to the rescue... a broken leg |
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| Shoobee walking his new friend |
Halloween turned out to be a weekend long event. Friday night the school had organized a trunk or treat in the school parking lot before their Family Fun Night event. They played Rio on a projection screen outside after dark. It got pretty cold, and they ran out of food. So Bart ran to Wendy's and got us something to eat while we froze and enjoyed the movie. Ladybug was pretty into it, but Shoobee got to a point about 3/4 of the way into the movie, where he was NOT having fun anymore! Thank goodness I brought so many thick heavy blankets to wrap up in! Saturday night our friends hosted a block party in our cul-de-sac. The kids dressed up once again and played games. We ate and hung around till the kids needed to go to bed. We actually put our kids to bed and got to go back outside (since it was right in front of our house) to continue the party with the adults. Monday night was Halloween. We have a long driveway and a busted outdoor light, so we chose to sit out in front with a small display of jack-o-lanterns and candy (and our bean bag haunted house that we placed a strobe light behind), and a chair. Bart opted to be the candy giver, which left me to take the kids trick-or-treating. They got so much candy it was incredible. And since this is the first Halloween Beena can partly understand, she was obsessed with the open bowl of candy!! To say the least there was a LOT of crying involved that night.
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| Brother & sister dressed up before preschool Pumpkin Party |
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| Pumpkin Patch visit! |
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| Group pumpkin photo... |
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| Halloween night... Thor, a ladybug, and Sif (Thor's friend) |
My birthday passed and was fairly uneventful. I spent the morning at my favorite spa getting a 80 minute hot stone massage.... ahhh!! Then I took a nap, ran an erand or two and went out to dinner with the family. Bart surprised me with a very sweet gift!
Friday morning I was supposed to be at the Kroger in Coppell at 6:00am to catch the bus to Plano for the opening ceremonies of the Susan G. Komen 3 day Dallas. I hardly slept all night, and finally fell asleep around 3:30am. At 5:50am, I woke up on my own to find that my alarm did NOT go off!! OMG, it was awful! I called my team captain, or at least tried to, but in my haze was trying to call an email address! Finally, as I was half dressed and falling out the door, I reached a team member and asked her to pass me on to Jackie. She said she would hold the bus for me and I dashed out the door. I got there at 6:18. So sorry guys! But we got to opening ceremonies with plenty of time to spare!
Day One was great! So much energy and excitement, the miles just flew by. The weather was so beautiful, not too hot or cold. And no blisters by the end of the day! I stayed at Camp Doubletree with my team mate from last year. We figured out that since neither of us snore, we make for good roomies. It was great to sleep in a nice comfy warm bed!
Day Two was the long day for us at 21.6 miles! The route was very similar to last year's, but thank heavens we did not go over the Addison suspension bridge because that was hot and brutal last year. My feet felt incredible sore at about mile 18, so the last 3.6 miles were accomplished on sheer will. I made it though! Another day down! My team was the largest and the highest fundraising team in DFW and we were therefore treated to a special dinner and a beautiful designer cake that night. There was a dance party which to me makes no sense, but my new friend Gwen & I actually stayed and danced for about four songs before giving in and walking back to the hotel.
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| Opening Ceremonies, Day 1 |
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| Two of my good friends, and me |
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| My walking backpack, the names on the ribbons are who I walked in honor of this year |
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| Me, at the end of 60 miles, 3 days, and so much love! |
Day Three started early, even with our extra hour from daylight savings, they started us out an hour earlier. We left the hotel and walked to camp to catch the buses to Ursuline Academy where we started our last day. It was again very similar, very scenic, and touristy. We got out early and walked a pretty brisk pace that got us to lunch, mile 13, by 11:40. So we had some serious time to kill. We took a 2 hour lunch break & rested. I needed it since my calves had charlie-horsed up and weren't relaxing at all. (Serious ouch!) Lunch, stretching, and a 2 hour rest was what I needed to be able to finish the walk. We finally made it, all 60 miles at about 2pm! We sat at final holding for a long while before making our final walk into closing ceremonies together! It was wonderful! The emotional and physical journey is such a bonding experience! I walked away with so many new friends, it was INCREDIBLE! Going back for more... 2012 here I come!
