Fall Festival 2011

You guys are going to think I grew up under a rock…and the truth is, I did, but we didn’t celebrate Halloween in my family. In fact, 3 years ago was the first time that I ever dressed up for the event as far as I can remember. I wore a toga, it was beautiful, and I went to my first ever costume party. I was 26. Instead of going Trick or Treating we went to our church’s “Hallelujah Night”. I never knew anything different. I never felt slighted. I always went home with a full belly, lots of great memories, and a ton of candy.

Fast forward a decade or so…nothing much has changed. The church we currently go to has a Fall Festival, and because Zoe isn’t exactly ready to decide if she wants to Trick or Treat or not…that’s where we headed. Let’s be honest, the real reason we went is because I worked damn hard for hours on her costume, and because Brad and I could get candy teach Zoe the glory of a bag full of candy. {Apparently, that lesson comes with birth…there was no teaching necessary. Zoe tried to take an entire bowl of candy. I’m actually not kidding you.}

I picked Brad up at work and off we went. Our church has an annual chili cook-off at the Fall Festival, and that’s what we counted on for dinner. I eat chili about once a year…and this is it. Not that I have anything against chili, it’s just that we never have it. So, we ate that and then meandered around for a little bit until it was our turn to man the bouncy house.

Brad and I decided to split up, I would take the first shift and he would take Zoe around and then 30 minutes in we’d trade places. It was a great plan right up until I ended up being there for almost the entire hour. But? Brad had a great excuse, he’d taken Zoe on a hayride that ended up in a bird sanctuary next door to the church. They got off the hayride and explored the whole place. There were wallaby’s, monkeys, tons of birds, and a whole collection of ridiculously cool/vintage/crazy expensive cars {like Colonel Sanders actual convertible, one of the cars was 1 of 2 ever produced, and an exact replica of the Delorian}….needless to say, Zoe loved it and so did her Daddy. I didn’t mind manning the bounce house for a minute, because lots of people that I don’t get to see every day stopped by to say “hi”…and how can you complain about that? At one point, one of the girls from the youth group that Brad and I used to work with came up to say “hi”, we were talking a bit before we got to this part of the conversation:

Her: You look exhausted.
Me: Thanks.
Her: No, I mean you really look exhausted.
Me: Yeah, it’s because I’m not wearing any make-up and so I don’t have any color on my face. {what I didn’t say is “I can’t find my makeup because my child took it somewhere and I have no idea where that “somewhere” might be}
Her: No. It’s under your eyes. It’s like {motioning} here. But, you for sure look exhausted.
Me: So, what have you been up to these days?

Kids. Kids and their damn honesty. Moms with no makeup, and a toddler, and kids with their damned honesty and lack of social graces. Anyways, Brad came to relieve me of the bounce house and suggested that I too go on the hayride. We caught the very last ride as the sun was setting. I didn’t get to see all the highlights of the bird place…but I definitely got enough to wet my palate. We’ll be going back there for sure!

Then it was all over. Brad and I made the 40 minute trek back home, put Zoe to bed, and then I sorted through our stash Zoe’s candy that she’ll never be allowed to eat because she’s too young. And that’s that!

Today we have Zoe’s 15 month check-up…should be fun! So, what did you do for Halloween?

Happy Tuesday Ya’ll!

PS. The lady that I’m with in the very last picture on the left…that’s my mentor that I’ve been talking about lately! Her name is Kim. Absolutley love her!