Halloween costumes

Doc McStuffin and a giant squid. Mr. D decided that grandma's so good with the sewing machine so this year he requested a giant squid costume, complete with tentacles and suckers.

Halloween Parade

D's Halloween Park at school. She was Doc McStuffin and stood next to the mad scientist.

 

the walk thru the neighborhood. This was D's last parade at preschool. :(

 

 



Halloween crafts

Thank goodness for pinterest! Grandma gets some crafty ideas from it. Today we took plastic cups, drew a jack o lantern face on it with Sharpies

 

 

                           added a battery operated tea light                                   

1. 
   and ended up with our own pumpkin jack o lantern

• next we glued stones together and made insects

Day trip to Pere Marquette Park

On a beautiful fall day we took a day trip to Pere Marquette Park for lunch and a drive thru the park to go leaf peeping.

D would love this giant chess board, he is learning to play chess at school.

 

view from the restaurant out to the river

 

Pere Marquette, a French Jesuit missionary priest. In 1673 along with explorer Louis Joliet, he became the first European to enter what is now the park at the confluence of the Mississippi and Illinois River.

 

 view from the bluffs above the river

 We also stopped at Eckhart's farm to get some apples and pumpkins. I just took photos. I love the color and texture of the gourds and pumpkins.

We also stopped by a winery and I brought a most excellent bottle of wine called "Captain's Blush". Will save it for the holidays.

Birthday-Halloween potluck

 One of the first activities I went to at the apartment was a potluck for Halloween and October birthdays. Charlie Chaplin also dined with us.

Everyone brings a dish and the management company provides the entrée.

New digs

My new place!

 

 I moved into a senior community a little while ago. Above is the living room, small in size but big enough for me. I have 2 bedrooms, and a bath. Each bedroom has a big walk in closet. It takes about 1/2 hour to clean which I really enjoy.

the kitchen, bigger than I need

 the gardens and patio

 the exercise room, down the hall from me. Everyone has made me feel so welcomed. The activity calendar is jam packed with thing to do every day. There is a big community room and kitchen for entertaining, a library, computer lab, big screen tv for watching movies and several sitting areas. I used the patio area a lot when I finished moving in.

Grandparents Day

 Another year, another grandparents day! D pretending that we weren't there

 the kid loves word searches

me and the boy!

Warrior dash

 my daughter did the Warrior Dash for a children's charity.

 B and her friends before the dash started.

 the dash is a 5k running course with 12 obstacles run for time. this one is towards the finish line.

 B going up and over. We couldn't see most of the obstacles

 running towards the finish line

 crawling thru the mud pit

 crossing the finish line

 B and me

 

the after

I missed the girls going thru the finish line the first time, I lost sight of them, so I made them go thru again! Think I'll try this next year, minus the running and the obstacles except for the mud pit, think that would be fun. B finished 5 minutes faster than the 70 year that ran it