A Busy October

The temperatures, along with the inhabitants, have been busy. Mother Nature has been slowly decreasing her thermostat, but mostly during the late afternoon hours when the sun is rushing toward the horizon. The days still remain a bit uncomfortable though the promise remains of cooler weather simply because it is 'fall'.

Carrie's birthday was October 8th. We had a small family celebration by taking her to her choice of restaurants. Her choice was influenced by the cake that is always smashed into the birthday person's face and the subsequent picture shot and placed on the wall of the establishment. After dinner and before the cake smashing, she was serenaded by the Marachi band. She had a lovely time.

Her big birthday party was scheduled for October 25th (last night). It was a " late afternoon, edging toward darkness"  event. The daughter had worked for days on making two Pinatas, mini cupcakes with blood shot eyes on them, avocado dip with chips, caramel corn, candy corn, chocolate chip cookies and hot dogs with "sauce, slaw and onions" and rice crispy treats, which I might add, we forgot to take out of the fridge and serve.

The stress level was high early Saturday morning. All the columns on the patio were wreathed in orange and black crepe paper, the ceiling with spiders on orange and gold tendrils, spooky vampires and ghouls on the fence and  skeletons emerging from the cobweb shrouded shrubs surrounding the yard. Tables were set up with orange tablecloths and all the chairs in and out of the house were rounded up and placed in a circle on the outer perimeter of the patio. I had my assigned duties and tried to keep a low profile as the stress level increased with the daughter's duties edging her toward party time.

1800 hours and the guests begin to arrive. Costumed in their Halloween finery, the broken doll danced around, the ninjas, the fairies and the dancers gathered around for the games that have been arranged for them. A set of circles were spray painted onto the grass and the balls the children were given rolled into the different sized circles aiming for the center. We judged the level of enjoyment from the children based on the laughter and the squeals, the darting around the semi dark yard and the hot dogs consumed.
My main job was keeping the hot dog bowl supplied for the guests.

Two piñatas were hung and a huge PVC  pipe was used as the "stick" to whack it. April had spent three days making these piñatas. A huge eye with a blue iris created by paper mache over a huge balloon, layered, dried and layered and repeated until a tough skin was created. The balloon was pricked and pulled from the completed, completely dried piñatas. The children lined up to take their turn. I think the construction of this piñata might be a bit overdone. It took a great many swings to soften it up and eventually it gave up it's treats. The children dropped to their knees, jostling each other, amid good natured squeals, gathering all the candy into their treat bags.
The party was a huge success. We were surprised by the large numbers of young children that attended. This was a three day break from school. We expected a lot of families to go out of town so we were pleasantly surprised by the turnout.
The magic hour of 2100 hours arrived and the guests drifted away. The cleanup begun. Thanks to April, Shane and myself, the decorations came down faster then they went up, the bones strewn around the yard and the skeletons in the bushes were retrieved and the patio hosed down to remove all the cupcakes, frosting and candy. I'm sure nobody wanted to get up early this morning for cleanup detail. 
I, for one, have enjoyed a quiet Sunday morning, lazing in front of the television. It's very quiet. I'm very grateful. Now what to do about two pans of rice crispy treats?