What happened to October?

Did we just miss the month of October? It sure seems like it. We just posted a few days ago at the beginning of October and then BAM! it's November now.

Continuing on the same analogy of the "Fall Marathon", we're now in the ultra-marathon distance and it's not even over yet.

The weekend following Sukkot, we were at Sarah's school to make raised garden beds. Sarah helped out quite a bit and it took the parents and teachers most of the day to get them complete. On Saturday we attended a gathering at a schoolmate's house and had fun learning about Iranian culture. On Sunday we celebrated Simchat Torah at our temple, Har HaShem. The whole family was there as well as our friend Peggy who shot the event for our year in pictures. It was truly an awesome opportunity from a photography perspective as well as a blast as a holiday.

After Simchat Torah, the sprint to Halloween started and we worked hard to tie up the loose ends for our costumes. Sunday afternoon after Simchat Torah we headed over to Munson Farms to pick out some pumpkins at the pumpkin patch.

The weekend before Halloween was busy with Halloween activities. We attended Niwot's Great Pumpkin Celebration with some classmates of Sarah's followed by a birthday party on Saturday. On Saturday evening, we went to Halloween celebration at the Golf Club in our community with friends. The children enjoyed "Wendy the not-so-wicked witch" and the viewing of Charlie Brown's Great Pumpkin. On Sunday following Hebrew school, the entire family got in costume for the "Annual Munchkin Masquerade Parade" in our neighborhood.

All of this was following by a "quiet" evening at home carving pumpkins. I was in charge of cutting the top and then Sarah and I cleaned the "guts" out. The design and art work was up to Brenda and after we picked a cool spider and a hokey smiley face she went to work cutting them up. The two carved pumpkins added a nice touch to our front as well as a great backdrop for the family pictures of us in full costume.

As you will see below, we were the Wizard of Oz family. Many people noted that we were missing the scarecrow. We had no intentions of expanding the family to fill that role!!