Happy Halloween Birthday

We all need a little Dr Seuss in our lives. 

Thing 1 and Thing 2?

 LOL

It was Sunday and our little town was having trick-or-treating on the Sunday instead of on the official date of Monday. We got everything ready and we were waiting on the front porch in our cute little hats. It was such a nice warm day, in the 60's. The kids could go in their costumes and not have to bundle up in winter jackets over the top.  I remember slogging through snow on some Halloweens in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan when I was a kid. 

The grandkids had come over earlier in the month and decorated the house for us with lit up pumpkins, strings of lights, and a few little cute things here and there. We don't ever do anything scary. Especially for the little toddlers and preschoolers. It makes it a nice safe friendly house to come trick or treating at.

We stocked up with a big bag of chocolate bars and a bag of Steve's favorite Smarties candies. That way when there's leftovers, it doesn't go to waste. Haha! We put the sign on the bucket in case we were in the house or doing something during the 3-hour span of trick-or-treating. Instead of just one piece we let them have two...

Our little scarecrow girl oversaw the bucket of candy. 

She's so cute. 

I did see on Jimmy Kimmel last night in some episodes where people were watching with their door cameras and other greedy people coming in emptying their entire unattended candy bowls! They would tell them to put it back so other people could have some! One woman (with her child right there) was taking ALL the candy. When she got caught, she remarked "oh we were just looking for a certain type of candy bar". Yeah right! Then why did you take ALL the candy and put it in your son's bucket? Some people can be so greedy. Ugh.

We put little Binney in charge of watching all of the trick-or-treaters. She just sits and watches them come and go. But she did get up and bark at two doggies that went by--- just to tell them that this was her house and they better not come in her yard. Otherwise, she is a big chicken. 

As the trick-or-treating neared 6:00 p.m. our grandchildren started to arrive. Here is Chelsea, minus her costume mask, ready to dip into our candy bucket.

Clayton Whitney and Claire clomped up the steps in their costumes. They bypassed the candy bucket because they had plenty of their own already in their bags.

Daughter Heather caught up with her daughter Whitney, she wasn't in costume this year but they had a lot of fun going house to house around our little town. Almost all of the kids we saw were accompanied by parents.  It was nice to see families out and about, having fun. 

Daughter Erin with her nephew, our oldest grandson Jameson. Yes, even a freshman in high school can go out trick or treating in our town and get a bag full of good candy. We never denied the teenagers candy, it's better they do something fun and childlike instead of going out and making trouble!

Soon it was time for all the grandkids to spread out their candy on the floor and do their "trades"

 

They all managed to find some extra Twizzlers and Kit Kats for grandma, and some Smarties for Grandpa. They know what we like. 

While the grandkids were busy doing their trades, I was getting out all of the makings that I had prepared during the day. We were going to have a taco bar for dinner. Something easy to make, and light on top of all of that candy that the kids ate already.

It's a lot of fun to just put out all the food on the island and let everybody make up their own tacos and dips the way they like it.

Everybody brought something to help out with the meal 

and we had a good family celebration.

What were we celebrating?

 My birthday of course! 

My birthday is actually on Halloween the 31st. But because we were all together for trick or treating it ended at my house for a birthday celebration.

Earlier in the day, granddaughter Chelsea had baked a cake and decorated it herself. It was so wonderful to be honored with a homemade cake from my granddaughter.  One candle was all I needed... But I have hit the big 62. Bring on the Social Security! 

Everyone gathered round for the Happy Birthday song and bestowed me with beautiful thoughtful presents. It sure was a wonderful way to end the holiday.  I am so blessed. 

~~~~~~~

A couple blogs back, in the one about "mold", had to do with me making a mold of the wooden scroll work on my antique treadle machine parlor cabinet. The gal that I made the mold for has now sent back a photo. It worked out beautifully and now her cabinet has the matching stroll work on the left hand door! 

And the scrumptious lovely wool sock yarn that she sent to me as a thank you, has now been cranked up into some nice warm lovely fall socks. I use my circular sockknitting machine and do up a pair in about an hour. 

Such lovely colors for autumn in Wisconsin. 

~~~~~~~

On the quilting front, I finally finished up the stained glass quilt for the king size bed in our bedroom. I made it to match our stained glass light fixtures.  This one I started in the spring, but finally got around to finishing it.  We moved the bed around to a better position on an angle. Steve helped me move around the four watercolor leaf prints and put two other prints on the side wall. It's kind of hard to balance out wall decor with the bed on an angle.  But it works out better for us in the room. 

I made the quilt long enough to reach down on each side of the tall bed. I have to finish the binding yet on the sides, but for now I put it on the bed to see how it looked. I like it! 

My next newest quilt I am working on is a pattern called pineapple blocks. I started putting the blocks together on my new handy dandy sewing room craft table that we bought on Thursday. It works out really well and helps me line things up to match while standing at a decent height, rather than crawling around on the floor.

This one is a fun pattern. I will make it into a queen size 

and sell it in my Etsy store when done. 

~~~~~~~~~

We are blessed again with some beautiful warm weather for the last few days in Wisconsin. Although it's supposed to turn very windy later today and might get up to three inches of rain overnight. Time to batten down the hatches. 

Yesterday we did take a ride in the motorhome up to the next town of Peshtigo. They have the best price for bulk propane at their truck stop called Eagle Express. So we filled up the propane and topped off the diesel at $5.05 a gallon. 

Now we are all set--- in case we decide to take off this winter and head south???

The sunshine streaming in the rig just made us want to keep going and going and going.  But we don't want to miss Steve's Dad's 90th birthday party this month, nor the Christmas holidays with the grandkids.  So we will wait for a good day in January and make a run for it if the roads are dry and clear. 

That's about it for today. 

Tomorrow will be My Brawny Lumberjack Man! 

Welcome Home Claire Bear - and - Halloween at High Cliff State Park

I am so pleased to be able to announce that our preemie granddaughter Claire is thriving! After 6 days being on CPAP machines to help with her immature lungs, and a feeding tube, they were finally removed and she was able to breathe on her own, and nurse as well.

Lookee at this little Claire Bear bundled up to go home! 

She was released on Monday, one week after being born. She is home and healthy and thriving. Thank you everyone for your kind words, thoughts and prayers for her surprise early birth.

She had a check-up today at the pediatrician and has gained two and a half more ounces and has grown half an inch. What a wonderful new addition to the Choate family!!!

~~~~~~~~

Well she was basking in the care of the hospital NICU, her two older siblings were able to join us at High Cliff State Park.

For the last 4 years we have enjoyed our Halloween celebration at High Cliff. This year was going to be wonderful because we would have six of our seven grandchildren visiting us at the park. It is also my birthday (actually on Halloween itself) so it is a great time to celebrate everything together at once.

This event at High Cliff usually takes place the weekend before Halloween. This way the campground bathrooms are still open, water and dump station are still operational, and everyone is able to enjoy the holiday at home the following weekend. We reserved our camp site, as well as one across the road from us for our son and daughter-in-law with their children for their Salem camping trailer.

The entire Campground gets into decorating and handing out treats on Saturday. The headcount at the main gate was approximately 6,200 people coming through the park. This year I really stocked up on candy so we did not run out!

Here are some of the campsites and their crazy decorations!

and our October Camp Hosts, 

Rosie and Luke

who go all out....

 this is just a small part of their decorations on the host site

It was delightful fun and we had a great time. Our grandtots and our great nephews got all dressed up for the candy and festivities....

Great-nephew Matt took care of handing out the candy from our site

 Thousands of people descended on the campgrounds!  Crowds floated by and we watched all the delightful and creative costumes as they passed our site.  Someone was making balloon animals and swords and toys for the kids. It was like a three ring circus, but it was 6 roads long!  112 campsites full of festive fall fun.

After the trick or treating was all done, we put those kids to bed and they all zonked out toot sweet.  All of that fresh air, walking and playing wore them plum out. They did not get to eat too much candy, so the sugar high was kept to a minimum.  Then we adults sat out around the campfire till well after midnight. 

The BEST part of camping with grandtots is when they all pile into our bed in the morning for a snuggle fest! The dogs hop right in and take part too.  Good thing we have a king sized bed in our motorhome. 

Our tradition is to give them little boxes of cereal to tide them over

until we cook a bigger breakfast once all the other adults wake up.

Notice how early it is, still kinda dark out yet....

(I remember Gram Kafehl getting those boxes for us as kids)

Then my oldest grandson Jameson made me 

a very special birthday cheesecake to celebrate

my birthday! What a great chef!!!

 The younger kids gave me a spa day including a foot massage, a back massage, and brushed and styled my hair for the day. What a lucky Grandma I am!  The kids were busy playing on the long stone wall that runs along the southern edge of the campground, leftover from the farming days in this area.  This is my FAVORITE pic of the weekend....  taken by my daughterinlaw Heather.

We got in time to visit, cuddle grandkids and 

have a nice visit with everyone together. 

(except Erin and Waylen with baby Claire at the hospital) 

The weather was unusually delightful and warm and sunny and on Sunday it actually reached 71 degrees for a high. Imagine that! I remember some Halloween's where it was snowing and we had to wear snow suits under our costumes to stay warm.

Steve and I lazed around the park after everyone left and we took our time packing up. It might very well be our last day of camping until maybe a mid winter vacation somewhere to the South. Sometime this week Steve will winterize the water lines in our motorhome.  Today he also blew out and winterized all the water lines in the park too!