This is Halloween! This is Halloween! Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween!

It was such a hot afternoon that Gabriel traded his bat costume for a lighter lucha libra cape and mask for the downtown treat or treating. I didn't catch any photos of the back of his cape, but it read "Blue Demon Jr." with a picture of the Mexican masked wrestler.

A real snake!

The evening was much cooler and Gabriel changed back into his mom made bat costume.

We met up with our buddies for neighborhood trick or treating.

Gabriel continued to correct people that he was not just a bat but rather a vampire bat, and a scary one at that!

Isabel certainly looked creepy!

They had a great time.

Happy Halloween!

El Dia de los Muertos celebration!

Halloween celebration at school!

Gabriel wanted to be a bat, so I made his very first home made costume. Black umbrella fabric for the wings and some felt stuffed with socks for the ears!

Gabriel showing off his bat wings with another homemade bat at his school:

Isabel changed her mind from a black cat the the more macabre Grim Reaper.

Pumpkin Carving!

Gabriel took a field trip to Spring Hill to experience the farm atmosphere. He was able to taste fresh made cheese, pick his own pumpkin, dig for potatoes, eat fresh ice cream and even milk a cow!

Yesterday I celebrated my good health and paid back society for the many times Isabel needed blood transfusions. I have type O negative which is the universal blood type that anyone can receive. In an emergency, a person may need blood to survive. If their blood type is not known, type O negative blood is given to them. When emergency situations such as car accidents or shootings occur, type O negative blood inventories can be used up quickly.

Many people consider it a right to receive blood when needed, but don't often consider the responsibility of giving blood to maintain the community supply for others. To meet patient need, over 6 million blood donations must be collected each year. One out of every ten people entering a hospital needs blood.

For our family, our friends, and for strangers in need, we must share blood resources. We need more donors, and we need donors to give blood more often. If half the people who donate one time a year were to donate a second time, we would not have shortages of blood.

People donate primarily because it makes them feel good to help save lives. Every minute of every day, someone needs blood. That blood can only come from a volunteer donor, a person like you who makes the choice to donate. There is no substitute for your donation.

When you make a blood donation, you join a very select group. Currently only 3 out of every 100 people in America donate blood.

About 95% of people living to the age of 72 will need a blood transfusion at some time in their life, yet only 5% of the population donates blood.

Isabel would have died without blood transfusions. Please consider becoming a blood donor and celebrate your own good health while helping save lives.

Today the kids and I made traditional sugar skulls at the farmer's market to add to our altar downtown.




I tried snapping a few more photos of the altar to capture the details, but as luck would have it, it was another gorgeously sunny day and I couldn't get the photos I wanted due to the bright window reflection. I sort of squeezed my arm around the corner to awkwardly snap these!

My uncle Paul in a frame painted by Isabel, and a quote of his old Navy tattoo.

The wonderful painting by my friend, Jen.

Beautiful painted frame by Jen. The photo is of her grandparents and a quote her grandmother used to say to her created by her eldest daughter, Zephyr.

My grandpa and mom with the quote: "And ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation"

Painstakingly made mini flowers!


Our kids created almost all of this part, all the mini sugar skulls, mini Caterina dolls, pets, and the field of tissue paper flowers.

My apron and the paper mache heart made by Jen.

Here are our little personal details. The photo of my grandpa and I, coffee beans inside Jen's grandmother's cup, the little box of cloves from her kitchen, the doll Isabel made of my mother next to the heart my brother painted, the cross box my other brother gifted to me, the clay sugar skulls the kids created with their ancestors in mind lying on my mother's wedding china.

Christopher who died when he was 4 years old, my childhood dogs, my grandpa and I in a hug.