Halloween 2026

This year Halloween fell on a Saturday - which was lovely! Ben decorated a pumpkin for the school book characters contest - he made Pigeon again from Mo Willem's books. 

Ben and Rosie had a Halloween parade Friday at school - here they are with their teacher. The third grade teachers all dressed up as characters from Mario.

Ben and Rosie together!

Rosie's Halloween hair!

Saturday was actually Halloween and it was a beautiful day.

Rosie dressed up as Padme from Star Wars:

Ben dressed up as Jayden Daniels - complete with injured elbow:

Jane went as Charlotte North - a famous lacrosse player in the WLL:

And Eleanor went as Adam Sandler:

The kids' friends came over for trick or treating.

Eleanor carved our pumpkin for us that afternoon (after I helped dig out all the guts):

Dudes pic:

All the kids together before they headed out:

Chris and Alex stayed in the driveway with a firepit to pass out candy.

The kids agreed to start on our street to humor us so we could go and visit our neighbors.

And as soon as possible the big girls broke away. We did randomly pass them while strolling in another part of the neighborhood later in the night!

Enjoying some time by the fire while the kids enjoyed Halloween:

The kids came home and started trading:

I finally weighed their candy four days later (after much eating and trading) and the combined total was 35 pounds. 

It was a great Halloween!

October wrap-up

October! The weather this month was amazing. It started out warm but got consistently cool part way through the month. We've had some rain, but also some beautiful fall days. I love Virginia in the fall. 

We celebrated cousin Matty's birthday with family:

We celebrated more of our church's 50th anniversary!

We got to spend time with some sweet friends from Florida that we hadn't seen in awhile. Jane and Georgia even got a sleepover in!

Eleanor went to a birthday party with friends:

Rosie has been practicing lots of volleyball!

One day Rosie came home with a gigantic goldfish - 9 pieces stuck together:

She also has been making fun marble towers:

Chris and his friends visiting their Ryder Cup victory trophy:

We got to celebrate my mom's birthday together!

Oktoberfest with friends:

Eleanor with some of her student ministries group:

Jane and a friend dressing up in fun costumes:

Jane with houses she made for a school project: Inuit, Lakota, and Pueblo:

Our friend Pia came fom Seattle to stay one week and brought Sal's one night. Yum!

Evening stroll to the marina with Eleanor:

Operations picnic with church:

Rosie and Ben, being twins:

The rest of the month was filled with kids' activities (soccer, flag football, field hockey, and volleyball) and school. Halloween coming soon! Meanwhile, onward to November...