Happy Halloween!

On October 30th, we had some time off due to power outages at work from Hurricane Sandy, so we bought Jovie a costume at Old Navy 1/2 price, and just in the nick of time!

Here she is - our cupcake

On Wednesday, October 31st we got to trick-or-treat around Fairlington with our great friends!

We met in the evening after work at the McGinnis house, where we drank some spiced cider made by Stacey, rounded up the kiddos for pictures, and then went out trekking through the neighborhood with the cutest bunch of trick-or-treaters you've ever seen!

Check out these two cuties - Stacey and I were reflecting on last year when they were tiny and we were pushing them bundled in strollers.  Last year we said "Can you believe that next year these two will be toddling around trick-or-treating?"  Unbelievable - "next year" is here. 

 Here they are - the cutest kids on the block!

Owen- the transformer; Madeline- Cinderella; Ruth - 80's girl; Peyton - bee; Jovie - cupcake; Emerson - the Morton salt girl

 Off they go!

Jovie LOVES Miss Jessica!

 Getting the hang of it

 With her prize

  Walking with Daddy

 After the fun!

 Everyone taking inventory

 Jovie's first stash - unfortunately, she couldn't eat any of it.  :)

It was so much fun to hang out with these kids and adults - what a great way to spend Halloween!

You are my Sunshine... in your second October!

Here are a few October gems that don't fit anywhere else:

Hi, Blue Eyes!

 October 1 

Just bein' cute in her room

 October 23

Pushing her stroller through the store

 October 24

Out for an afternoon walk

 October 29

Walking around the Bradlee Center as Hurricane Sandy starts to come

 October 30

Enjoying playing with her reflection in the mirror

Fall weekend (ish)

Besides missing Mike and Jovie, the other sad thing for me about the Africa trip was missing two weeks of my favorite season!  So when I got back, we did a couple things to make up for it.

On Sunday afternoon (I got back Sunday morning), we went to the church really close to us that sells pumpkins, and we let Jovie pick one out.

 She preferred waving to people over actually looking at pumpkins

 She did like to pick up the mini pumpkins

On Monday, Mike had to work, and I took the day off, so I took Jovie to Great Falls for a Mommy and Jovie day.  It was a lot of work, hiking around with her by myself, but it was really fun!  And a beautiful day.

My intention was to go right to the Billy Goat trail, but the towpath around it is closed for construction, so we took the detour path.  Not bad, huh?

 When we got to the towpath, we took the trail down to the river.

 And then we had our picnic!

 Birds

 Eating

 Climbing around after lunch

 Then we walked up to Great Falls.

 A really nice lady offered to take our picture (while Jovie waved at everyone around)

 We took a little bit of the Billy Goat Trail, and Jovie fell asleep, so we walked back.  By we, I mean I carried her sleeping in the backpack :).

After our day at Great Falls, we met with Jeff who was in town for a conference and had dinner with him.  He hung out for a bit at our house before, and played with Jovie and taught her to wink, which is really a hard blink with both eyes.  So cute!  It was a really great couple of days to ease back in to being home.