Official Halloween Portrait

Every Halloween we have done Halloween cards, its a great way to share the fun with family across the miles, it's become a tradition!  Here is this year's poses!  

 (So glad she still likes the princess stuff, and has not been drawn into the older stuff yet..who knows for how long..sigh) 

Mulan!  Warrior Princess! 

Halloween and More Fall Fun!

Happy Halloween!!  

We are home from trick or treating, my little goblin a.k.a. Mulan, is tucked in sound asleep..despite all the candy.  I don't know exactly how much she ate...but it was enough!  
We had a quiet Halloween this year.  We decided to stick close to home and go trick or treating in our own neighborhood.  Considering we leave in the country, surrounded by older people, needless to say we were the only ones on the street.  

So we decided to get in the car and head to a friends house and go trick or treating her neighborhood and she her kids.   Little Miss loves these kids, and was excited to go see them and perhaps hit a few more houses.  

Not the usual busy tons of people Halloween nights, in fact, little miss even noted that last year there were a lot more people out.  I think I do like it better to be out with tons of kids on the streets, where every house has a porch light on, and you can hear nothing but kids shouting trick or treat and leaves rustling beneath our feet.  Or the warm nights of AZ Halloweens, where our neighborhood had theme homes, and over the top decorations.  

I did however make it to her Halloween parade at school today, and though there really wasn't much to it, she was very proud and had a blast. 

A little bad weather ain't going to stop us!

We had another great weekend.  It started, with ending a bad week.  We were going to go up north and see some call and attend a Fall Festival in the Adirondacks, when the weather looked like it was going to get ugly.  So we cancelled the plans.  When the rain seemed as if it would hold off for a while, we decided to try something close by.  
There seems to be a lot of farms around here that have a lot of activities for kids in the fall.  We happened upon Ellms Family Farm and had a blast!  The weather kept the crowds down, (I was freezing, wind was whipping and no sun), but the kids didn't care.  They went zip-lining, digging for treasure, corn shooting, on a little train..so much fun! 

Then my friend mentioned a nice little restaurant on Balston Lake! It was the perfect ending to a nice day out in the cold.  Wood burning fireplace going with a couple of cozy couches by it to warm up, and hot apple cider. Ahhhhhh. 

Then on Sunday, we ended up going up north for a drive on Daddy's birthday.  Naturally, I forgot my camera! Here are a few from my phone!   Oh but why is Autumn such a short season!!!  

 

The Blue's!

Ugh!  The blues!  I have them..why????  Just in one of those modes where nothing is good, and I don't know why. Hopefully I will freakin get over it. 
Maybe little Miss's joke from last night will help: 
Sam: Knock knock
Me: Who's there? 
Sam: Apple.
Me: Apple who? 
Sam:  Apple aren't you glad I didn't pull your pants down and say butt??!!  
Hysterical laughter from the little jokester..she just cracks herself up. 

Wish I was here right now.  Can we go back to July please??  

The New Boat!!!!

Wow!!  He did it!  My father purchased a new boat!  Next summer is going to be amazing...man I need to find a way to get it off!!  It was put in the water 2nd week of September, and most of us got to ride this season.  So we got a little bit of a summer extension thanks to the boat! We still need to think of a name...going to work on that.  

Farm Fest and Apple Picking!

I always dreamed of living in the Country, and the city..but now it's the Country's turn.  I am loving it!  Love the deer, the turkey's, the cows, and most especially the farms in the area.  Every year this town has something called Farm Fest.  Several local farms open up and have activities and events to show off what they do and let us play. We did it last year at the farm nearby, and this year we hit a couple of them.  Great way to start off Fall I say! 

Apple picking is an upstate tradition.  I have done this every since I can remember. There are several places to go around here, and several places closer to our house to go.  This year we chose to go with tradition, and go to Hicks..well, thanks to Rachel Ray ( our resident celeb)...this place is now on the map..and..a little too touristy for our taste..but we did it this year.  First we went to a maple sugar house where they serve the best pancakes in town, and the best syrup in the area of course.  Many great photo ops...

 

"Home" ...where exactly is that?

Home.  I am tending to notice that "home" is many different places.  When we lived in MA and AZ, home was NY/MA.  Now that I am back on the east coast..AZ feels like home.  And oh, how I miss it. Unexpected, never thought in a million years, really miss it. I miss my house, I miss my friends, I miss my job, and I just plain miss my life. I am doing better.  Better than I was last year as this time.  Having every night just me and Little Miss, was hard.  Not normal family life.  No time to connect to other adults outside of home, like I used to be able to do.  No girls nights, all because it's me, single mom every night. This..and I really did have a good life!  I had a job I felt good about, a place I belonged, and a life I established.  It was home.  I find it incredible that I am missing that home, as much as I missed this home..and thought I needed to come back so badly.  

Do I regret it?  No. We didn't come back so much because we missed it, as much as we wanted to raise our daughter here, in these schools, in this climate, in this culture.  We enjoy it too.  How much I miss, the life I had is the surprising thing. 

Sooo..this summer we got to see some of our peeps. It felt like a warm glove. Seeing my mother, all helped..but now I miss it again.  

Mimere and Pipere..oh and Sadee

Sunday Morning Bagels!  Just like the old days! 

 On the dock..touch of Fall in the air.

The original scooter gang 2012...

Home  is where your people are...lucky us..we have a couple of them.