Neighborhood Trick or Treating and a Celebration of Life gathering

We had a lovely fall Saturday and after today's weather I am beginning to think it is the last nice day we will see for a long time. I believe the high was around 60 degrees on October 25th and today it hovered around 35 or so! It even snowed today. We wouldn't want to gradually adjust to winter we need to go for the gusto and go from sunny and beautiful to snowing sleeting and freezing rain overnight.

We enjoyed our beautiful fall day by participating in our local businesses trick or treating event. All of the shops and restaurants around Highland Park sponsor a trick or treating Saturday every year. This was our first year and it was great. We actually only made it to about 6 local businesses before our buckets were full! The main reason for that is the local Lunds grocery store has about 10 stations throughout the store and they give out a large variety of items from, Apples and carrots, to milk and chocolate chip cookies. We even ran into our neighbor friends Ann and Mikey and they were kind enough to trick or treat with us for a bit.

Ben and Mikey (Ben is carrying his sister's bucket he doesn't really have two)

Our day of trick or treating was following by a drive to Hudson, WI to attend a Celebration of Life party. My cousins Dan and Jackie had their baby girl Shaylee pass away last December at the very young age of 10 weeks old. Dan and Jackie have a 4 year old son named Tanner and they wanted to show him that when they speak of Shaylee that it can be positive and they can talk happily about the 72 days they did have with Shaylee. In a lovely tribute they had purchased 72 pink balloons that we released into the air in remembrance of the 72 days Shaylee was with them. It was truly a beautiful tribute.

Ben had a fantastic time playing with all the other kids there and Emily was quite entertained by the dogs. Both kids were really impressed by the GIANT swing set and GIANT bon fire my cousin Dan had set up. Living in the country does have its privileges. I don't have any pictures of the bon fire for you but it was the largest bon fire I have ever seen. I know Ben will be asking to go visit Tanner again soon as he loved playing on his swing set and playing with his toys. I believe Ben's exact words were, "I don't believe it!"

I was also able to meet my newest second cousin, Ellie Anna Faith. She was as sweet as could be sleeping happily in peoples arms as new babies tend to do.