October Came and October Went...

It happens like this every year. It’s a perfectly peaceful September where we slowly change pace from the end of summer and look forward to the eventual cool breeze of fall (which technically will not arrive in Florida until about the 3rd week in November). Then, October hits and everything goes crazy for the next three months until the year is over.

October overflows with fun activities so it’s rare to find a weekend that isn’t jam-packed. And, with the “relief” from the oppressive heat of summer, most Floridians take the opportunity to enjoy the theme parks that surround us (unfortunately this year, as was the case last year, our “relief” comes as upper 80 degree weather and a “cool” breeze. I heard today there was a blizzard up north and we’re breaking record highs at 91 degrees today). In any case, it’s not unbearable anymore, so we are taking advantage before the weather turns too cold for our thin blood.

In the stretch of 10 days, Kate visited Busch Gardens, Green Meadows Farm (a huge farm where she saw every animal imaginable enjoyed a hayride, pony ride and train ride and chose a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch), Sea World’s Spooktacular & Magic Kingdom where she had lunch with Pooh & Tigger. As if that weren’t enough, we spent the weekend following that excitement with most of her friends at a church fall festival and a local pumpkin “patch” (our pumpkin patches here are often in church parking lots with hay covering up the cement…very different from what Keith and I know from our childhood). As Halloween approached, Kate grew more and more excited to have her party, wear her poodle skirt and trick or treat.

Choosing a costume this year was an adventure. We began receiving catalogs for costumes in August and Kate immediately gravitated toward Jessie from Toy Story. Knowing this costume is not great for Florida Halloweens, I immediately started steering her toward other options. For weeks she was stuck on Jessie, but then suddenly my mild suggestions took root and she decided to be “a princess.” I was thrilled that she didn’t seem to want to be one of Disney’s princesses, so perhaps we could have Grandma Sandy whip up something non commercial, homemade and cheap. Kate’s excitement for the princess costume was low, though, so we decided to take her shopping. At Gymboree, I showed her the cowgirl costumes that would allow her to be “like Jessie”, but she had already picked out the “50’s girl” costume because of the poodle on the skirt. For the next 3 weeks, whenever anyone asked her what she was going to be for Halloween, she’d say, “poodle.” Finally, the week of Halloween she added “poodle skirt.”

While she loves the decorations hanging around our house (friendly ghosts and such), she did not like visiting Party City this season, or any other Halloween aisle that had big spiders, rubber snakes or anything else remotely spooky, slimy or ghoulish. She’d start whimpering like a dog as soon as she saw anything scary and continued until I finally removed her from the scary stimulus. She managed to put her brave on for the big day. It helped to have some friends with her. On Monday after Halloween, she kept saying, “I was so brave!” And she was. What a trooper, also. She actually made it through a pretty big loop in our neighborhood. On the morning of Halloween, Kate awoke to additional party decorations throughout the kitchen and family room for the party we were throwing that afternoon with all her friends. Her face beamed and glowed all day and she kept saying how much she liked the decorations for the party. She had a terrific time greeting her guests and playing with everyone right up until trick or treat time.