grandaddy turns 60 ...and halloween!!

we headed to burnsville this weekend for a slew of exciting things ...and a few extras! we planned the trip to celebrate daddy's 60th birthday, give the preacher a thumbs up for his 36 years of service and show off donovan's halloween costume. i love halloween and have been excited about halloween from a child's perspective....or really most holidays from a child's perspective.


donovan does not travel well. he hates his carseat and can only be entertained in it for about an hour before meltdown ensues, which makes a simple trip to burnsville a nightmare. there is something about an ear piercing scream that makes me feel like i might come out of my skin. it is such a weird mix of emotions and thoughts that go through my head during these meltdowns that can range from "he is dying...i know he is dying...that is a death scream" to "he has got to shut up or i am going to save myself by jumping out of this moving car". my parents met us at the door and must have seen the glazed look on our faces because they offered to keep donovan while we went out to dinner, which was delightful!



my parents are building an addition onto their house and so day and night is spent either picking out paint/tile, or ordering around contractors. daddy requested to play golf on saturday, which is dan's favorite birthday gift to give, and mama and i tag-teamed donovan and house cleaning. we did get a surprise visit from my friend phoebe and her mom to break up the day and love up on donovan. daddy got roped into giving out pumpkins at "trunk-or-treat", which is hosted by the church, so we dressed donovan up in his skeleton outfit and took him to town. it was a neat event with all the merchants open and the town full of kids in costume. we finished up the night with daddy's birthday dinner.


sunday was a big day because it was the last time we would see mr. muri serve our home church. this is a big deal to us because he has been with the church 36 years, baptized matthew and myself, married dan and myself, buried my grandfather and dedicated donovan. the plan to get us all to church clean, dressed, fed and napped went smooth as silk up until the nap point which stretched until 12:15 that day......and for those of you non-church goers church is over at 12:00p. luckily i was able to sneak in for the last few minutes and bid farewell to the preacher while dan kept things under control at home.

our neighborhood in cornelius has a big halloween to-do and dan and i strategically planned our trip home to miss it because of our busy weekend and need to get donovan back on schedule and get ready for the week. alas...we got home during the thick of the rush....candyless. quick trip to
walgreens to get some candy...rush to cook donovan's dinner....rush to unpack car.....rush to wash clothes....rush to put donovan to bed....rush to eat dinner.....this is not what i pictured for our first halloween, but alas, i would not give it up.