I molti giorni di Halloween

Translation: The many days of Halloween

October proved to be another busy month for us. Lots of parties - mostly birthdays, but also a going away party for our friends, the Borja's, that were moving back to the states. Since it was their daughter Jasmine's birthday and they didn't have the supplies to bake - and I love to - I took it as an opportunity to get creative. Here's a photo of the birthday cakes I made for Jasmine:

I am completely convinced that October is the best month for birthday parties too! Not only is it a good month generally for weather no matter where you live, but the plethora of costumes, candy and creative ideas for Halloween and costume parties: the ideas are endless.


And then you add in a supermom-creative-momgenius (like my friend Molly),

you have yourself an awesome party to attend.
Between Riann and Lincoln, we had multiple costume and/or Halloween-themed parties we were invited to. And lucky for us, we have a lot of friends who also have a lot of costumes stashed away so every party, Riann and Linc were able to dress as another character.
And let's not forget Halloween itself, pumpkin carving and trick or treating! F. U. N.

Riann had saved her peacock costume for Halloween night,

and Lincoln... well, Lincoln kept asking to be Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon. After asking around to buy felt from friends (versus buying the 7euro a yard for felt... and you can only buy it by the yard here, and I only needed a little), I finally completed Lincoln's costume in the nick of time. Of course, in almost-3 year old independent fashion, Lincoln no longer wanted to be Toothless as it was nearly time to go out the door for trick or treating. He opted to be Buzz Lightyear, the same costume he wore last year, only he ended up not going out last year because he wound up with a nasty ear infection that landed him in bed for the night by about 5:45pm and completely missed trick 'r treating.

The beginning of November, Riann's kindergarten class went on their annual field trip for Olive Harvesting. I was one of the lucky moms picked to go on the adventure. Four classes of kindergarteners, 6 moms from each class, plus teachers and their aides... it made for a really fun, fantastic day - and the gorgeous weather made it even better! Miss Orapallo's (the Italian immersion kindergarten teacher) husband's family owns a huge olive farm in Benevento. Every year, she invites the kindergarteners to go help pick the olives and learn all about the olive oil process. It made for a very fun, educational day. This is a picture of her class under the 300 year old olive tree:

A few days of rain made for awesome puddle jumping the following weekend. Busy boys are happy boys... and boys that get to jump in really huge, muddy mud puddles make for ecstatic (and later very tired) boys.

November 20th, we celebrated Lincoln's 3rd birthday with a few of his friends. I kept it small and quiet with his usual Thursday playdate friends because he tends to get really shy and clams up around larger groups. He had fun and his friends had fun too.

Riann had her Thanksgiving feast in her kindergarten classroom. She and her classmates sang a few songs, had a few costume changes and were able to tell all the parents what they were grateful for. Riann, by the way, was thankful for turkey. Each family brought in a dish to share, so we all enjoyed sharing a delicious turkey lunch together.

It was almost Thanksgiving, only we would be taking off for another adventure instead of having the usual Thanksgiving Turkey dinner. Instead of the mad rush to the grocery store the night before turkey day, we were packing our suitcases for Madrid!