Another exciting Halloween. This year we opted not to have our big fall party. Instead, Scott requested to have his first sleep over party. Since he was looking at a 4 day weekend, we decided it would be a great idea. Especially since Halloween was on a Friday night. So I did not want to have a house full of adults as well as teenagers. Aghhh!

Instead, we had my parents visit along with several adult neighbors. Scott invited about 8 friends. Girls and Guys. Scott worked very hard decorating the house and cleaning for his friends visit. He asked for a sleepover, but Tom and I nixed the idea of the girls spending the night. So we compromised and had them stay until about 1130pm. They were all in the basement watching scary movies and pigging out on snacks. Then the girls went home and watched the rest of the movies via Skype. It doesn't look like the guys got much sleep anyway. After the movies came the video games and more eating.

The rest of us spent the evening passing out candy. Not as many trick or treaters this year, but I still did go through 2 big bags of candy. It was a beautiful evening though. Lots of cute kids. One of our neighbor's son passed out the candy at our house while I was putting out dinner for our guests. Tom and my father went for a walk down the street to check out the trick or treaters and house decorations. Scott even took Cookie out in her Star Wars costume. Luke Skywalker riding on a Ton Ton. Cookie did not like her costume much. She ran back down the street until it fell off. Mostly she stayed busy entertaining our friend's cavachon puppy, Ripley. The two of them ran around our house. Then I put my Dad to work playing tug of war with the puppy. They both kept themselves pretty busy. While dropping off my parents back to their apt. that night, we drove through the neighborhood to check out more decorations. One of the neighbors carves several 150lb pumpkins each year and sets them up in the front yard. The theme this year was "Sitting around the Campfire Telling Ghost Stories"  And we caught an incredible laser light show at another house nearby complete with a dancing skeleton and Jack o Lanterns.

On Saturday morning, Scott's friends headed home. I headed to work. We had quite a few new patients admitted over the weekend that needed evaluations. Allison actually came home this past weekend as well. Her Field Hockey team did not make it to the Finals which were being held in Virginia Beach this past weekend. So instead, Allison and her roommate headed to Uof Maryland to attend a few Halloween parties with her Ultimate Frisbee friends. She also ran into many Mt Hebron High School grads so they had lots to chat about. And everyone dressed in costumes. Allison has discovered the wonders of GoodWill as she put together a cute witches costume for under 6 bucks.

We were all pretty worn out Saturday night so we stayed home. Allison and I considered attending the Bingo night at church with my parents, but the place was packed and ran late. Instead I dropped Scott off to volunteer to help run the Bingo and earn hours towards his Confirmation. He was busy serving food all night. And he got to spend more time with his friends.

Sunday morning I was up early(thank goodness for an extra hour of sleep). I participated in a 5K Fun Run/Walk for the Maryland Brain Injury Association with my fellow Nursing Home staff. We actually brought one of our patients to the event and pushed her around the course in her wheelchair. Several therapists helped her walk across the finish line. It was a terrific event, but that was enough time spent outside as the weather had really changed and was very cold and windy.  Allison headed back to school. I spent the afternoon with SCott and Tom cleaning up our Halloween decorations and finishing up some yard work. Scott also spent a few more hours at church volunteering with the Beading for Hearts program. He was busy assembling bracelets for confirmation volunteer hours. He opted out of the evening Teen Life Tailgate party at church though. Tom and I ended up at our neighbor's house to watch the miserable Ravens football game. Yuck.

So again we packed a whole lot of activity into a short weekend. On Monday night I had the pleasure of dining with my parents. The facility had a family night dinner and meeting afterwards. It was very helpful to speak with the staff and fun to eat with mom and dad. They plan on more family events. I even scheduled our Girl Scout choir to sing at the facility at the end of the month. Before you know it, we will be celebrating Christmas!

Cookie gives Luke Skywalker a Ride

 Halloween at the Seitz House

 We've got Big Bugs!

 What to do with 150LB Pumpkins!