Halloween is over and now Christmas planning can begin!

As much as I always dread Halloween, it always is fun.  Despite my typical fall head-cold hitting on Halloween Eve, we survived with no major drama!  And it was actually one of the best weekends we’ve had in a long time.  Just about as perfect as it can get!

We managed to hit one of our favorite pumpkin patches on Wednesday.  It’s the place where my boys and my nephews would go on fields trips when they were in preschool.  It’s always fun to go back and get pictures as they get older and taller.

Scott and the boys carved a fancy Spartan head pumpkin.  It was a great additional to my previously decorated Sparty glitter pumpkin.

Halloween brought us over to our friends home where we had our traditional Halloween celebration with lots of food and candy for the kids and lots of adult beverages for the grownups.

My kids were perfectly Halloween spooky.  And Scott and I managed to pull off some easy last minute costumes.

We are dogsitting.  And my kids have fallen in love with this dog.  He’s simply the easiest and friendlies dog ever and now we want one of our own.  He also seemed to really love his Halloween costume.  As always, we stop by my parents house at the end of the night, and the dog made himself right at home on the couch.

Friday night it was a pretty quiet night at home after football practice.

Saturday brought rain and a cold front to the area.  It would have been a perfect day to stay in bed, especially with my cold.  But we had some other plans.

First it was a stop at Toasted, the new grilled cheese restaurant in Orlando.  I had the Buffalo Chicken Sandwich – it was delicious.

It was tough for me to taste it all since I’m so snotty.  But it had a good flavor without being too spicy.  I can’t wait to go back and try another.  I loved grilled cheese.  Especially on a rainy day.

Then, it was off to Downtown Orlando for the Book of Mormon! It was a big family outing, minus the children, as a big early Christmas present.  I wasn’t sure how comfortable it would be hearing all the inappropriate jokes with my parents right there.  However, my mom has the soundtrack memorized, so it wasn’t as bad as I had feared.  I think everyone really enjoyed it and we all just laughed and laughed.  I can’t help but wonder what some of the older people in the audience thought out the play.  Did they know what they were getting into?

The show was amazing.  The music, dancing, costumes, everything was great.  I can’t wait until the new Orlando Performing Arts Center opens because the Bob Carr just has bad audio.  It was hard for me to catch all the jokes because the music was kind of overpowering the actors.  But, it was amazing.  My two favorite things about the show: 1) When they first said Orlando the crowd went wild.  They mention Orlando so often during the show it’s awesome to be able to actually see it here.  Many in the crowd were confused and thought it was tailored to us.  It’s not.  2) The sign language people were a show themselves.  They really got into it and had some amazing signs for all the dirty words.  They even changed costumes.  It was amazing.

After the show we went for dinner and then ditched the kids again to help a friend celebrate her big 40th birthday at our favorite spot, the Black Hammock.

If you’ve never been – you must.  And let me know because we’ll join you.  It’s Old Florida at its finest.  I mean, check out this sunset.

What made Saturday even better? My beloved Spartans beat the nasty folks from down south in Ann Arbor.  Not only did Michigan State beat Michigan – we killed them.  Ask any Spartan.  We could lose every game of the season and as long as we beat U of M- the season is a success.

Sunday was spent at home cleaning.  Which was perfect.  Long overdue and I feel so much better in a clean house.  We took the dog for a long walk, went on a bike ride and enjoyed the cooler Florida weather.

Plus, the end of daylight savings time is my favorite holiday of all.  I finally feel human again!!!