Halloween 2024

It was a rainy Halloween this year, but we still managed to have fun. We went out early in the month for our annual corn maze/pumpkin patch outing and had a gorgeous day for that.

We got ourselves nice and lost in the corn maze

Ryan managed to eat both a large acorn squash half and roasted corn

My mom arrived for a visit the week before Halloween. I neglected her for the first couple days while I wrapped up an insanely busy week of work and then she and Ryan came to my orchestra concert that weekend. We played Saint-Saën's Danse Bacchanale from Samson and Delilah and a piece by Kristina Vasiliauskaite which I loved, Simfonete, among others.

M really wanted to go out trick or treating this year, but was also struggling to come up with a good costume idea that he liked. In the end, he reused last year's costume. We also didn't get around to carving our pumpkins or decorating the house until Halloween day. But we got 30-40 trick-or-treaters despite the rain, so that was exciting! That's about all we ever get, but I was shocked it was that many when it was rainy all evening while last year when it was dry we only got 16. I also appreciate that 3 houses next to us get very into decorating, so there's at least a little draw for kids. 

I went out with M since it was dark already by the time he was ready to go. He thankfully didn't want to stay out long - just long enough to get to a house 3 blocks away that he likes the decorations at, and fill about half of his candy bag. So overall it was a chill evening. After we got home we all finished watching The Birds with Ryan.

All the pumpkins turned out great this year:

Ryan's on the left, M's in front of G's on the right

My mom and I spent a bunch of time making treats: apple hand pies, apple cider caramels, toasted coconut marshmallow covered in chocolate, peanut brittle, and we whipped up some ginger-molasses cookies to sandwich our batch of marshmallow that didn't set quite right.

Ryan and I went to a play, Primary Trust by Eboni Booth the day after Halloween - 2024 Pulitzer Prize winner and we loved it. It's about how we handle change, what makes a meaningful life, and recognizing that even though things will change or may not last they still have value and we can and should enjoy them right now. Highly recommend seeing it if you ever get the chance. We said goodbye to my mom yesterday and now our focus will shift to supporting G as they get all their college applications in and figuring out how to make M's new fencing schedule work as we head into winter.