Snapshots: First Freeze, Halloween, Etc.

We had our first freeze on Tuesday night, so I spent Monday gathering all the tomatoes and the last of the basil. That was pretty much all that was left in the garden.

The turning-color tomatoes, and basil.

The all-green and all-red tomatoes.

I gathered the last cosmos on Monday, too.

And a couple of very small sunflowers.

I was asked to sub for a sick teacher on Wednesday, and was very amused by this student's note left on the classroom refrigerator by the previous day's sub for the teacher:

This is not a note any of my sons would ever or will ever write.

Poppy wore these bows on Thursday that my sister gave her years ago:

Very holiday-specific bows.

I spent some time on Friday cleaning out the van for its annual duty as the Trick-or-Treat Party Van.

With the back two rows of seats out, there's plenty of room for hyped-up children.

Our first stop was in our own almost-ghost-village at Ms. Amelia's house. She always wants to see our children's costumes, and she always gets candy for them. They are the only trick-or-treaters she sees.

Pippi Longstocking and a Green Bay Packer on their way to the first candy of the night.

We ended up with thirteen kids in the back of the van and four adults in the actual seats for the trick-or-treating in the bigger village. Some of the parents followed in their own vehicles, but all the kids want to be in the van. I mean, who wouldn't want to be riding around with all their friends in a giant van, eating candy? 

I only drove them when the houses were too far apart to walk. There was plenty of walking, too, though.

Running around in the dark with friends is even better than cramming into the back of the van.

The only restaurant in the village is owned by the grandparents of three of the children that came with us. The restaurant wasn't open, but they asked us to come back to the restaurant when we were finished trick-or-treating, because they had a bunch of candy there, too. So we went back there, where they handed out water and soda and all the children investigated their bags, playing with the balloons one lady had given them.

It was a nice end to the night. We all appreciated warming up after our cold trek. It was only in the forties outside.

Pretty good haul this year.

By which I mean: Mostly chocolate.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.