Days with the Dorans

  Nothing like doing things at the last minute... We carved our pumpkins on Halloween before the festivities. I have to say, I LOVE having Halloween on a weekend! Marty REALLY wanted to lick all the pumpkins but he refrained and listened to his mom. Such a good boy! I have to say, Joey's pumpkin was AMAZING!  He's such a natural artist. just eyeballed this and went with it! Then it was time to get into costume for our annual family costume! This year... THE SIMPSONS! I think that Zach and Sean especially have seen every episode ever made so this was a fun one for us! Ali, Ellie and Stella were going to go as the girls from Mama Mia but there was a bit of a mix-up and so Stella didn't come and then Ellie just wore her Diary of a Wimpy Kid Stuff. Al went with the original play because she put a lot of work into it and bought those shoes herself! I hope she can wear them again someday! They were fun. Nana and I passed out the candy and this year we did it right, avoiding the d...

Well~ We made it work. This year's costume/theme was Napoleon Dynamite and it was fun! Jeff was well enough to put on his Rex Kwan Do costume and he came out to the hallway so I could take a quick pic. Covid is no fun but being together and having the family I do made the best of it for sure. And it's so good to "see" Jeff~ even if it's from more than 6 feet away! We were able to carve pumpkins. Halloween fell on a Saturday so it was a full day of fun affair! Then it was time to get into our costumes even though there was no trick-or treating. Here is what everyone looked like... Jeff as Rex Pedro, Deb, & Napoleon Tina the Llama & Grandma Because we have the coolest friends ever- Coz stopped by and dropped off some dry ice for us to play with. He left it on the deck of course but it sure was fun!! HERE are some fun videos from the night!

 We made it to Halloween and in typical 'mitten' fashion the weather was just awful! Ali got dressed up for the occasion but then she got into some snuggly clothes and did homework (yes... sigh... homework). She did pass out some candy with Nana but I'm hoping she'll get out next year. This year's costumes were fun and the only things I bought were mine, Joey's Wonka outfit and Marty's "Grandpa Joe" sweater and cute tie. The rest of them got creative with stuff that we had. Not bad and super fun for this Dahl fan! I was so happy that Joe went out to Trick or Treat again. He had a few friends join him and I'm hoping next year's group will be bigger (and include Ali). Z had a friend join him, too, which was cool. We were glad to have Ryan with him though he didn't look like himself.  Sean was fine tagging along and Z didn't mind one bit. Sean changed though and made his own costume that made no sense really. He found...

 I wish that Halloween was on a Friday or Saturday but this year it landed on a Wednesday. The kids all had half days which was nice. Al made her costume for school and Z wore a crayon costume I had (since their costumes would have been tough to wear all day in classes). Sean did wear his Pig-Pen costume at his school party. I wonder if anyone knew who he was... My class had fun too. We teachers went as skittles! Last year we were emojis so I just took my emoji, covered it in green and put an S on it and was done! We're trying to think what "circle" options we can use for next year! Once we got home it was time to get into our real costumes and get the picture. I think it turned out great (even Jeff's weird hair) and I think a lot of people figured out who we were. Someone loved Joey's costume so much (he even had "a rock" in his pillow case) that he gave him extra candy!!  Marty joined us dressed up as Snoopy dressed up as the Red Baron! ...

This year's costume was FUN! Jim (my retired coworker) gave me the boys' masks so all I had to get for them were the tuxedo shirts (thank you Amazon). They played with those masks all summer so it was an easy pick to go with a Muppet Theme this year. I got Joe's (Kermit) and Ali's (Piggy) costume on Amazon and then got creative with my (Honeydew) and Jeff's (Beaker) costumes. Marty's (Animal) costume was just a lion's mane costume painted red, red old ripped up shirt and chain from Dollar Tree. I think they turned out pretty well! Al turned out NOT to be a fan of her Piggy costume so she switched into Jeff's costume and was a happy camper treating with one of her BFF's (Maris). So I became Piggy (and yes- that nose was annoying). My Honeydew mask was impossible to see through (even though Amazon said you could). I wore the wig out treating but kept the nose off. I'm digging the wigs this year. Z's buddy Matthew came out with...