Halloween Weekend!

This year's trick-or-treating was as exciting as we all expected.  Like last year, we invited the Reynolds' to come with us because it's more fun to run from house to house with your best friend.  However, we had so much fun with them last year that we thought it would be fun to invite more friends to join us this year, especially since it fell on a FRIIIDAAAYYYY!!!!  Unfortunately, three of the other families we invited had other plans, but FORTUNATELY our best Stella girl could make it!  Having friends over for Halloween is THE BEST because we all ate dinner before the kids left, we filled up our solo cups with adult beverages for the long trick-or-treat haul around the neighborhood, then by night fall we were all back in the house, watching Curious George, eating candy, and finishing our adult beverages!  It was a win-win for everybody.

 I didn't get many good pictures at all, but I did get a great one of all the kids and Mamie before we left!  Albert was the cutest little pumpkin you ever did see, but he was sleeping when we started trick-or-treating.  Oh well!

 We did run into our buddies, Leah and Nate!  By this point, Margot had lost the caterpillar costume.

It was cold out, but at least it wasn't raining!  By the time it was dark, all the kiddos were back inside, which meant they really only trick-or-treated for about an hour.  They wanted to watch the Curious George Halloween special, so we fired up Netflix and let the good times roll!  Margot looks quite suspicious in the picture above.  No one dared to touch her candy.

Mamie and Albert had a dandy time!  She stayed all weekend to watch the kids for us on Saturday night while I sang with my old a capella group in Lexington, then we all went to Disney on Ice on Sunday! 

I also don't have many pics at all from the wonderful 20 year reunion concert in Lexington.  I should write a separate blog post about it, but Laura did a darn good job of saying everything I would have said.  It all boils down to this: the UK Women's Choir was my first and only experience with choral music.  I was thrilled to be a part of it 15 years ago.  Standing in the middle of 100 beautiful voices, under the steadfast direction of Dr. Hetzel, is one of my life's greatest memories.  Consequently, singing with Paws and Listen, a select group of 16 girls, was the icing on the cake.  That's where I met one of my very best friends and we've spent the last 12 years navigating life together, through boyfriends, husbands, careers and kids.  We discovered last weekend that no matter how long we've been away from our alma matter, there will always be a space in our hearts for that group of amazing women.  I cried a lot.  I closed my eyes and desperately tried to soak up the sound around me and imprint the vibrations onto my very bones.  There's nothing like it.  I was honored to be a part of it, and I was so excited to sing on stage in front of Sylvain and Sylvia!  They came down for the show, and while I have NO pictures of myself on stage, I'm not sure they would be very good ones anyway because all I did was smile and snap.  Here are some pictures of our girls waiting for the show.  Sylvia has since declared that Ellie is her best friend.

One more great story from that night: After the alum sang with the current Paws members, the old ladies left the stage so the current group could sing three new songs.  One of them was Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off."  Sylvia LOVES that song, so I tiptoed up to the curtain back stage and looked out at her in her seat.  She and Ellie were sitting on the very, very edge of their seats and Sylvia was bouncing along and singing every word.  That was the highlight of her night.  I don't mind one bit!

Finally, our awesome weekend ended with a trip to Disney On Ice with Mamie.  The girls had so much fun and I did, too!  I had Margot on my lap the whole time.  It was her first show and she was totally enthralled with the whole experience.  She kept shouting, "Mommy, look!" and pointing at every new character that arrived.  And, I'm telling you, I know every word to every Disney song, and I've seen Frozen 4 gazillion times, but when Elsa and Anna started singing together I totally cried. 

And that's our whirlwind Halloween weekend in a nutshell.  Next up, Albert's 4 month checkup!  Spoiler alert: he's the tiniest Fasciotto by far.  Womp womp.....