Oktober Fest

I love fall and contrary to what he might say, Bryan sure seems to enjoy this season too. It just seems like everything people do in the fall is more fun. Even the chores are better...splitting wood when its 62 degrees is much more fun than mowing the grass when its 108 or shoveling snow when its negative two. The holidays are better too...Halloween and Thanksgiving are more fun than Easter and New Year's Eve. Here is the evidence to support my claim.
Remember my blog a few a few months ago when I revealed Lilly's German dress and promised you that you'd see it again? Well, here it is. The dress is too cute and Lilly liked wearing it so much that we had to build a Halloween costume around it. Luckily for us, it wasn't really that hard. After a little bit of a shock when I googled 'milkmaid' without being specific that I was looking for a child's costume, it was pretty easy to figure out what we needed to add to the dress. All we needed to make Lilly look like an authentic German milkmaid was a button hat and a milk bucket. We found a silver bucket, wrote 'MILK' on it and I channeled my inner Martha Stewart (and called my grandma for help) to make Lilly the button hat. She was the cutest little milkmaid ever.
So cute in fact, that she took Honorable Mention at the Boone Village Halloween Party costume contest. We think Lilly should have beat the (store bought) pirate and fireman, but Woody's mom deserved that trophy. His entire costume was home made.
Two days later Lilly and Grandma left some apples out for the deer that pass through this time of year. They looked for them today and found they had been eaten! Very exciting. Lilly thought she should play on the wood pile while it was still there. (see below)

Splitting wood (when you have a splitter) is a really fun fall chore. Bryan complained when we were done that his back hurt, but I didn't find it hard at all. I stood, and later sat, in the same place for three hours and operated the splitter while Bryan lugged the logs over, maneuvered them into position and then stacked the split wood.

Lilly checked on her apples and then played in the sandbox. She spent the morning mentally preparing for trick or treating that same night.

Lilly had a great time trick or treating. We left early and made a few visits that required a car ride then came home to set out around the neighborhood. Tiki and Papaw joined Lilly, Bryan and I for trick or treating while Grandma made dinner and Wes handed out candy at our house. This worked out great, everyone got to see Lilly in her costume (without us having to drive all around and make ten stops) and we came home from trick or treating to find meatloaf, mashed potatoes and gravy ready to eat.

Lilly's favorite part of Halloween was ringing doorbells. She loved running onto the porch and pushing the button. We were very proud that she said "trick or treat" and "thank you" loud and clear at each house we visited. There was one house where things didn't go as planned. We couldn't help but laugh when Lilly approached the house, rang the bell and smiled at the woman who opened the door. Then, instead of saying "trick or treat" Lilly politely asked the woman if she could please come in and see the kitty that she had spotted just inside.