October is my favorite month of the year. I just love the brisk cool of fall, how the shadows get deeper and the sunlight and the leaves turn gold. The spooky sound of a blustery breeze blowing through corn stalks thrills me. I love October so much that I’ve become excessively poetic; in only three sentences.

October in Missouri is chock-full of possibilities for fall fun…Pickle some yard-long beans to look like spooky, pickled snakes (or worms)? Or hunt for paw paws and then see what they taste like (I’ve heard a cross between a banana and a mango)? Baby’s school served homemade paw-paw ice cream last week (I missed out on a taste)! I found a paw-paw tree near Wildhorse Creek but haven’t gotten the chance to actually harvest any; maybe next year?! We could prepare something with the pounds (and pounds!) of persimmons falling from trees in our yard? Hunt for edible mushrooms? Visit Owls and Orchids at the Butterfly House or Spirits in the Garden Friday nights at the Missouri Botanical Garden? Apple picking at Eckerts? Celebrate the 100th year of Rombach’s Farm? Cheering on the Cards in the playoffs (WOOooo!!!) is a no-brainer!….How about visit to Hermann’s Oktoberfest? A haunted tour of Lemp Mansion? A walk down zombie road? Or how about…

The xrays weren’t exactly in the name of October fun; Spy Sister got in a car wreck a few weeks ago and broke her nose! OWWWww!! Not to worry, she is fine.

You might think that I like Halloween so much, surely the kids would need new costumes every year? Not so! I love the tradition of using our homemade Halloween costumes more than once. How many uses can we get out of the pumpkin?

The pumpkin is just some orange fabric circles with an old towel sewed in between the layers (toastier and sturdier!) and then black fabric sewed on for the face.

Baby will likely wear this pumpkin one last time this year. And maybe next year she will fit in to…

The skeleton? When it is too small to be worn, I think I will hang it up and use it as decoration! I painted it on a pair of black sweats; using acrylic paint and outlining each bone with white puffy paint. The back is also painted. I used illustrations from an anatomy and physiology textbook as a guide.

For the Spy this year (and the past several years), he opts for my husband’s old Marine Corps gear…

I am a big fan of…

As an art history major (in 2005) I actually wrote a 30, yes THIRTY, page paper on the Picasso painting above. I don’t recall a single point I made in the paper but apparently the still life has been engraved in my mind, as I always recreate a version of it in my Halloween decor! So just remember, you need a skull in case you need to jazz up your still life!

I also love making eyeballs out of radishes and green olives…

These radish eyes are also great to add to veggie trays!

We have almost always followed the rule of; thou shalt only wear homemade Halloween costumes.