Halloween(s) and roughing it in the Appalachians

Frank posting tonight in case you wonder about the different style.

Hey, we're getting better....only two weeks behind the events, yay!

The title has Halloween as plural and that is exactly how it transpired. The Thursday before Halloween, Maddie and Mason's daycare had their annual Halloween parade. Big excitement for Maddie since she finally got to wear her mermaid outfit. Great fun to watch all the little ones dressed up in their favorite costumes. I would guess about 86.71% of the girls were dressed as princesses while the boys showed a bit more variety, ranging from the good old cowboy outfit to superheros and the latest Disney Corp must-bes. Maddie had a ball and was hopping up and down the entire time of the parade and during the subsequent singing of Halloween songs.

Pretty mermaid

Mason's class was not participating in the costumed revelries, but all of his friends were watching the bigger kids from the baby buggy.......not our little man....he fell asleep about five minutes before the parade started and was conked out the entire time.......why can't you sleep like this at night, Dude?

Just two short days after the daycare festivities it was time for the next Halloween party: Salem's 4th birthday party. This time Mason did not fall asleep and got dressed up as a fierce (but very cute) lion:

Janet dressed up as a good or bad witch, depending on occasion and check mark on her outfit, and I went fittingly as banjo playing farmer. Mason got tired of pretending to be a lion and had to take off his outfit to give his tummy room to expand from all the food:

Elvis Grant helping Maddie to de-mummify

Jumpolene: $150
Toilet paper: $12
Princess toilet paper madness; priceless:

The day after, finally the real Halloween: Robin, Waylon, Noah and Kylie came over for dinner and to trick or treat in the old neighborhood.

Buzz Lightyear and Ariel the goofball, uh mermaid!

Mermaid and fierce lion

The wee ones: lion and butterfly

Well, the lion wasn't so fierce after all and passed out about halfway through the neighborhood

After all these events it was time for a drudging workweek before heading out to Asheville with Amy and Stella Dot. Unfortunately Grant could not make it and we missed him.
In case anyone has any delusions: no, a five hour drive with two little ones is not exactly relaxing. My nerves were raw by the time we pulled into our log cabin court. Then the skepticism about our quarters began and Maddie immediately declared that she was going to be scared in her room......sigh!

In the meantime Mason was busy planning the rest of our trip:

The nights were challenging since the kids were not used to their surroundings and we were all kind of groggy in the mornings....well the Scholles that is......some people have lower maintenance kids, right Amy? :-)

We kind of messed up on Saturday and instead of showing the kids some waterfalls and cool mountain scenery, we ended up eating lunch and spending some time in Asheville. I had never been in the city and really enjoyed it. Nice place with a neat downtown area and some nice shops, bars and restaurants.

On Sunday we finally made it into Pisgah forest to introduce the kids to the mountains.

All geared up and ready to hike to Looking Glass Falls.....little did we know that it was only about 25 yards off the road, duh!

The Waterfall

Girls, waterfall and general happiness!

Scholles, waterfall and general happiness!

After the waterfall we went to the "Cradle of Forestry", the first forestry school in NC. They had a neat exhibit with a scavenger hunt that the girls enjoyed and a trail that showcased some of the old buildings of the forestry school and other artifacts from that time.

Too bad the horses are missing!

Happy to hang out together

Mason having a good time walking

The kids having breakfast in our rustic log cabin

Aside from a couple of sleepless night we had a good time. The girls really enjoyed being together and we were pleasantly surprised to see how well they still get along and how much they like each other, even though they are not in the same school anymore and only see each other every couple of weeks.