Happy Fall!

I've prolonged it long enough - I'm finally accepting the fact that summer is really over. What brought on my new-found acceptance? Decorating for Halloween. It's easy to be in denial about the coming of fall and winter when you go camping all the way through September, but now that I have all the Halloween stuff out, I can finally accept that it's over and fall is here. :) I don't know why, but I love getting out our Halloween things - maybe because the boys love all our stuff and get into it so much. After today, though, I don't think anyone else feels the same way we do! (?) Today I weeded out some of the old stuff to give to Goodwill and then went on the hunt for some new October-ish stuff to add to our collection and found NOTHING. Nothing!! My favorite gift store in which I ALWAYS find adorable seasonal stuff (see above right) even failed me. I don't think I've ever walked out of there without buying ANYthing - today was a first. My search continued to 3 other stores, to no avail. Am I the only one who has fun with this time of year? I'm not giving up - Ebay, here I come!
Tonight we're all decked out in our Vikings gear for Monday night football and Mark is currently jumping all over the family room talking/yelling at the TV. It's always a workout for him to watch the Vikings - ?!? We're also "babysitting" some dear friends' girls - at least one of which WILL be our daughter-in-law someday. :) We're bringing arranged marriages to this country. Noah's already starry-eyed - he gets absolutely goofy when she's around - I'm almost embarrassed for him, he talks silly, acts silly, can't seem to calm down. Poor kid. Anyway, here they are, watching the game:

It didn't take long for Noah and Tori to lose interest and go play, but Jack's the die-hard, just like Daddy - focused for the duration . . . .Two peas in a pod!!