Boo! Rrroar! Hee, hee, hee...

And, here it is:

The Strom Family's October Poem
Boo! Rrroar! Hee, hee, hee...
Decorations all around
Boo! Rrroar! Hee, hee, hee...
Skeletons on the ground
Boo! Rrroar! Hee, hee, hee...
Spider webs in the tree
Boo! Rrroar! Hee, hee, hee...
Let's make a costume for me

Boo! Rrroar! Hee, hee, hee...
Candles orange and black
Boo! Rrroar! Hee, hee, hee...
It's candy corn for a snack
Boo! Rrroar! Hee, hee, hee...
Ghosts and skeletons we have seen
Boo! Rrroar! Hee, hee, hee...
Let's carve a pumpkin for HALLOWEEN!

I got to go with Siri to the Dodge Apple Orchard

where we picked apples

...and made cider with her class

We had a lot of fun with Grandma and Grandpa on their visit--mostly spent preparing for Halloween

but also creating towers and testing our balance

And, of course...drawing

And, then, the Halloween festivities began with the Preschool Party

Izzy (from Jake and the Neverland Pirates) and Ariel (in her  "day-on-land" outfit)

Di and I ran the Monster Dash 10 mile for the second year in a row, and decided we really need to do it every year--it's a beautiful course, autumn weather is perfect, and so many fun people to watch!

And, then: carving pumpkins. Annie did most of the process by herself--She was not a fan of the pumpkin guts

Siri--on the other hand--for all her drama enjoyed the guts, and probably the drama itself

On Halloween Eve en route to the church party, the girls checked in on our old neighbors who we miss a lot!

Then enjoyed dinner, a jump house, carnival games, and mostly, being with friends at church!

Siri as Izzy and a church friend as Jake

At Annie's school, the kindergarten and first grade classes combined to have an all-morning Halloween party--with each room set up for a different activity. Annie seemed to have two favorites: the pumpkin painting room

And the singing room--all the kids loved singing, dancing, and story telling with their music teacher

And, then, back to their classroom-a Fairytale Forest-for snack time around the campfire

Annie and her teacher

Ready to trick-or-treat!

So, can you tell what we were excited about for October? Our focus was most definitely on Halloween, and the girls were ECSTATIC to discover that our neighbors spend the month creating a very elaborate, spooky Halloween display on the front yard. We spent a great deal of time watching them work and appreciating their efforts.

October also meant enjoying beautiful autumnal weather and gorgeous leaves, eating lots of soup and squash dishes, going to a pumpkin patch and apple orchard during a visit from Grandma and Grandpa, and working hard to get ready for the Harvest Dinner at church.

The girls are LOVING school, and have great teachers and friends at their respective schools. Siri's class has been very into mushrooms, and each preschool day, I get to hear about what types of mushrooms they found on that days hike (I'm learning all sorts of new types of mushrooms, whether their edible or not, what color they are, what they feel like, smell like--etc.). The other memorable thing from this month for Siri is how prolific and adept she's become at drawing. Both she and Annie spend most of their free time coloring and drawing. Siri's quite the realist--drawing a water bottle, then cutting it out and pretending to drink from it, drawing a train track for her drawn trains to go on, etc...
Annie is loving math and science, and is full of questions about the universe and bugs. Her teacher's whimsical nature resonates well with her, and Annie was delighted to help turn their classroom into a fairytale forest for the Halloween party.

We've got a few projects we're hoping to get down before winter really sets in, though a winter storm warning for the next 16 hours makes me think we've got to get ready to refocus on inside projects...

We hope you are all well!