The Halloween Capital Of The World!

Happy Halloween Y'all!

Josie and I woke up to big, huge, SNOWFLAKES falling all around!

Luckily, the sun came out and the temps began to climb just in time for us to head out for the Anoka Halloween Parade!

How did I live here for 17 years and not know that our little town is the Halloween Capital of the WORLD?!?!

We got a chance to get together with one of my best friends from high school and her gorgeous four month old daughter, Scarlett for the parade too!

This baby girl is stunning.

Josie is pretty much in Candy Heaven right now.

I find it so completely odd that my friends have babies now!

The first half of the parade was warm and sunny, but the winds shifted and the temp dropped a good 10 degrees in just a few minutes so we decided to leave a bit early.

Now we're off to get our hood on and head out to my Aunt's amazing Halloween Party!

Show Offs

Last night, Josie's Uncle Aaron, Aunt Katie, and Buddy Charlie came over to carve pumpkins with her.

My brother and Charlie are both artists, so I tried to get Josie to choose to be their partner for carving, but she didn't take my advice and ended up with me.

I can work some magic with a can of spray paint, but I quickly learned I need to work on my pumpkin carving creativity!

I hadn't carved a pumpkin in well over 15 years.

I knew I was in trouble when I glanced over and noticed Charlie was making a draft of what his pumpkin was going to be.

And when Aaron requested a power tool and made shavings on his pumpkins beard, I knew my pumpkin was going to be pretty wimpy.

Our pumpkin was closed up and lit about an hour before Aaron and Charlie wrapped theirs up!

But Josie was proud of our little Jack'o Lantern and that's all that matters to me!

They finished up around 10 PM.

Show offs.

Home Sweet Home

One of my favorite things to do is look at other people's houses.

I'm one of those creepers who gets excited when people leave their blinds open and lights on at night so I can see in their windows as I drive by.

Andrew calls me a stalker, but I say I just like to get decorating ideas.

And its not like I get out of my car and go peek in the windows!

I love blogging because I get a chance to look at lots of people's houses without any risk of being arrested for spying!

And since we are all so very much alike, I know you like house peeking too.

So let me welcome you inside my Mommy's house!

My Mom's house is basically my favorite place in the World to be.

We moved into this house when I was about 10. My Stepdad built it himself and it was the perfect house for our family.

It's rainy and cold out, so you'll have to wait for a picture of the outside, but here is a peek at her garden from our bay window.

Who's garden looks this good in October in Minnesota?!?!
This thing is crazy beautiful in the Spring and Summer.

My Mom redid the kitchen a year ago and it turned out gorgeous!

This house is decorated exactly the way I wish mine was.
I have to remind myself that my Mom has been decorating it, bit by bit, for over 16 years and that we've only lived in ours for 2!

Her decorating is all about details that describe who we are as a family.

My Stepdad built her this corner hutch.

I love the details and all the family pictures.

I'm totally stealing her style of simplifying the mantle.

The entertainment center is covered in pictures!

My Mom hand stenciled this on the Master Bedroom walls.

I love that everything in this house "goes" together instead of being matchy matchy!

Ohhh, look at those cute little kids!!!

My Big Brother and I had full domain of the upstairs.
We were allowed complete and total decorating freedom over our rooms.

My Brother had an entire wall signed by friends with lots of graffiti.
It was amazing.

Then he moved out and my mom painted the room yellow and turned it into a nursery for the Grandbabies! (which I can't show since there is a certain grandbaby asleep in there right now!)

My room started out an insanely bright blue with a teal bathroom.
It was bright and funky.

Then we redecorated it when I started high school and for some reason I decided on stars and moons.
I still have no idea what made me do that.

Regaurdless, I haven't lived here in ten years yet my room is basically the same way it was the day I left.

I had one request when we were deciding on a floor plan, I wanted window seats. And I got three of them!

While the window seats were great, it made a slight problem in the bathroom.
This super short mirror was fine when I was 10, but not so great when I was 13!

So we added a vanity.

I still love to get ready at this thing.

So there's a peek at my Mom's house.
I didn't ask if she minded if I posted her house on the WWW, but it's too pretty not to share!

Minnesota Arboretum

While the other Mocha Mamas were having playgroup yesterday, Josie and I had our own play date at the Minnesota Arboretum!

My grandma, Josie's Great Gramma Jackie, was able to come spend the day with us too!

Minnesota is in the full swing of apple picking season so we went to the apple orchard to pick up a couple bags of fresh apples before going to the Fall Unplugged exhibit.

I don't think I've ever seen as many gourds and pumpkins as I have in the past three days! The things are everywhere!
And they are huge!

Josie was so smiley and excited. Which was a huge surprise for me since we are on day four of no napping.

I think she might just be delirious from sleep deprivation and brain freeze.

Fall Unplugged was gorgeous.

Scarecrows all around.

Gardens everywhere you looked (even though blooming season is way over here, it was still so pretty!)

My mom stepped right in the pond.
She's good like that.

And the leaves.
Oh the leaves!

Golden, red, bright, beautiful.

God is in every season.
Even the cold ones!

When we got too cold, we headed in to see more pumpkins.

Minnesotans love them some pumpkins.

We missed playgroup, but ended up having a pretty fun day here in Minnesota!