We went to the Gilbert Halloween Festival. Loved it. Wasn't too crowded which is rare in the Phoenix area. There was trick or treating, bingo, a tile to decorate with Sharpies sponsered by Home Depot, pumpkin decorating, a magic show and last, but not least a concert which was the primary reason for attending. The concert featured Saavy and Mandy, as well as Jonnie and Brookie. Just pass me the earplugs!
My son has been saving his money for the new Guitar Hero 4 for his WII complete with drums. He bought it last weekend. Did I mention earplugs???

"Spooky Cake"
Every year the kids decorate a spooky cake as part of our Halloween traditions. They are getting too old for most of them, boo hoo. I think that will be my new Halloween tradition. "Boo hoo my kids are getting too old." I love our family traditons and even if I have to twist my older one's arm, I want to continue them so that they will remember more of them when they grow up and will share them with their own children.

After school today, I called up the stairs "Taylor, Come Down Here." She found two bowls of our favorite autumn treat, popcorn and candy corn. I said "Sit down, it's girl time" and proceeded to start the Anne of Avonlea DVD that I had checked out earlier this week from the library.
Sometimes you just have to make the time.

What A Bunch Of Clowns. My daughter has safety patrol this week. When I dropped her off yesterday, I saw her teacher handing out red noses, oversized glasses, wigs and bow ties. I knew I had to bring my camera today. They looked like they were having a blast.

I attended Blissfest yesterday. I knew that I just had to squeeze in time for this important event. I left the house at 7 am, raced through a community garage sale and then on to my goal of getting to a retirement community flea market, then off to Blissfest. After that a stop at my favorite thrift store which is only a few blocks from Blissfest, raced home, picked up my son, took him out to lunch before dropping him off for drumline practice, picked up my daughter from a sleepover, picked up my husband for a family dinner at our favorite Aunt Janet's house, went to the family dinner, then off to ASU for "BAND DAY" or in our case, "BAND NIGHT". Got home at 11:30 PM,left at 12:30 to pick up Cole, bus was late, arrived back home at 1:40 AM. Are you tired yet from reading my day yesterday? But my tank was filled and these peeps of mine are the reason why.

First person I saw was my friend Maija. She was looking fabulous dressed in one of the gorgeous slip dresses from La Masion Rustique.

I was on the lookout for the super sweet Beth Quinn. Found her!
Look what found me? Maija and I agreed that it was totally me. Love it. I ran into a really sweet fellow school mom, Christine, in Beth's booth also.

I asked Maija if she knew where my friend, Tricia was. She pointed me in her direction. Found her too!
Don't you love her "BOO" tickets that I purchased from her? She's putting together a little crown kit for me. I've been wanting to make one of her crown canvases forever.
I then stopped by Michelle's booth which was conveniently located next to Tricia's. I met her when she had a darling boutique in Gilbert. I want one of those cupcakes!

Speaking of cupcakes, I wish I could have gotten closer to take a better photo of these oversized cupcakes for the cakewalk.

Looks like someone mastered the art of the giant cupcake cake pan. I heard so many complaints about them. Aren't they darling?

This booth was adorable. Love all the colors.


I'm afraid that this is the closest I'm getting to seeing my beloved fall colors this year.
A fall trip just wasn't meant to happen this year and I'm pouting about the leaves. Fall is my favorite time of the year. I need to count my blessings, I know, and enjoy the gorgeous fall Arizona weather. We were able to finally turn off our air conditioning last week. I raised over to Kim's booth. She brought a few of her fun items for me. Love her work. She has such flair. Ran into Colleen and Sherry there. Missed seeing my friend, Sue, but left word with them to say hello and that I was looking for her. Also ran into a new fellow school Mom that I met last week while we were admiring each others jewelry and discussed that we would probably see each other here.

At ASU Band Night, we sat with my dear friend, Laurie, and her darling sister, Kelly, and their families. I've been close friends with Laurie for over 22 years now. I met her at Gold Canyon Resort where I met my husband. I was the reservation's manager, my husband was the golf pro and Laurie was a front desk clerk. Mark and I had quite the little romance going on there. One time, he impatiently pulled me away from work and raced me to his car to leave. He was in such a hurry. I spotted a golf cart blocking his car and thought that he would be really annoyed since he was in a hurry. Little did I know that he had left it there intentionally. He had us jump in it and drove over to a mountain where he had a bottle of wine, chilling in a silver bucket, and two glasses. He had timed it so that we could watch the sunset from this beautiful site. I'll never forget that day.

It's definitely people, not things, that filled my tank this weekend, but the things were awesome too!

I had the pleasure of spending the evening with my visiting Aunt Betty and my gorgeous cousin, Shirley yesterday. Aunt Betty is my Mom's older sister. My Mom has been gone nine years now and I can still hear the two of them laughing. Aunt Betty has the most contagious laugh. I love being with her. I don't see Shirley near enough. She and her husband moved to Mesa from Tucson about the same time we moved to Chandler. They gutted a house and totally remodeled it. It was so much fun to see the changes.

I was honored to have my halloween decor posted on Tip Junkie yesterday. Thanks Laurie!

I spent the evening with several thousand teeny boppers screaming to the famous Jonas Brothers. My friend, Alyson, invited my daughter and I to join them. Demi Lovato and Jordan Pruitt also performed. The audience was thrilled when they performed songs from "Camp Rock." My ears are still ringing! It was actually a concert in conjunction with a Kristi Yamaguchi ice skating event. It was really fun and entertaining. Most of the Olympic skaters had their children with them. Much to our surprise, we were informed that NBC was taping the live show tonight. Now you can see it too. It will be aired November 8th. I had a funny conversation with my friend Carmen earlier today. My dear friends Carmen and Tina each have two boys so I'm always entertaining them with "girl" stories and we can also have boy conversations because I have one of each. While talking on the phone with Carmen, and discussing today's events, I told her that I didn't think I had mentioned what I was doing tonight. I said "Have you ever heard of the Jonas Brothers?" She laughed and said "Oh my goodness. You are such a mother of a girl." Yes I am!

We are celebrating our 22nd Anniversary today. We just returned from an evening out at our favorite Italian restaurant. We spent the evening reminiscing about some of our first dates, our wedding and trying to remember how we spent most of our anniversaries. We wished we would have kept track. The most memorable were our 1st, our 2nd in Cancun, our 4th in Hawaii, our 5th spent at Mackinac Island, our 7th when we were celebrating our long awaited pregnancy with our 1st child, our 10th when we were supposed to be in Hawaii, but instead were happily 8 months pregnant with our 2nd child, our 20th in Vermont, Cape Cod and Rhode Island and our present 22nd.

Welcome to My Harvest Home.

Grab a Pumpkin Wish and Come on In.
The table is set.

The banners are hung.

The tree is decorated.
With a darling new ornament from Angie. I have a thing about Candy Corn.
The jars are filled.


The china cabinet is adorned.
A new black and white vignette.

The mantle is filled with the fabric pumpkins that I made last month. My favorite is the swirly one in the middle. Holly generously shared these directions.
You know, every crown needs a pumpkin and every pumpkin needs a crown.
Last, but not least, I found this darling little silver trophy at an estate sale a few weeks ago. I thought it was the smallest one I had ever seen. It's only 3 inches tall.


Until this even tinier little one arrived in the mail from Teresa.
Happy Fall!