Octobery Fun

After two grueling weeks of work I was ready for a break. Luckily it was U.E.A. I had a pretty long to-do list in my head, so I took the girls to daycare Thursday and Friday, even though I felt VERY guilty about it. I went to the conference for awhile, ran some errands, cleaned my house, started a painting that I had planned out, and made myself a new cuddle blanket to replace the shreds that remained of the one my aunt made me for Christmas when I was twelve. It's hard to take Aven and Etta to daycare on my off days but it allowed me to get so much done that we were able to devote Saturday to fun fall activities.

First came the Pumpkin Regatta at Sugarhouse park. People grew enormous pumpkins, carved out the insides, and then got inside of them and raced them across Sugarhouse pond. One guy even took his dog aboard. It was pretty fun.

I was kinda disappointed that none of the pumpkins tipped over.

There was another category where people raced boats that were built with pumpkins and other materials.

After a late lunch and a brief nap we dragged a still-groggy Aven out of her bed, got her costumed up and went to Garden After Dark at Red Butte Gardens. This was our third year and it was once again a really fun event. We had thirteen people in our group. It was challenging to keep everyone together, but we all had a great time.

We started by painting pumpkins in the Orangerie. 

Our attempt to get all the kids in one photo. Back row: Payton, Zachary, Jaxon, Gwen, Aven, Me, Etta. Front row: Jacey and Haddie.

After decorating werewolf masks they all sat on the wall and howled.  I wish I had a video, it was super cute.

A headless, glowing Aven in the black-lit spook alley.

Aven was so tired when we got home that she didn't try to engage us in her usual bedtime-avoiding tactics. She was asleep within five minutes of climbing into bed. I call that a successful day!