October in Review...

October was a blur. I spent 10 days babysitting my two nieces while their parents were in Germany. Then I spent 10 miserable days with a severe sinus infection which helped me find out I am allergic to penicillin and similar substances in some anti-biotics. After a few new treatments the sinuses are good and my icky, itchy rash reaction to the first meds is gone. Aaaghhh....I really didn't appreciate having my Halloween holiday hampered by health issues. After all, with two adorable kiddos, and Rhett who is into fun as much as any kid I know, there was no way I was going to sit anything out no matter how lousy I was feeling. So here are the highlights from our Halloween this year....

Many a Halloween we have wanted to create a giant Operation Frankenstein game. Due to the fact that there was no pressing reasearch and dissertation writing to do, this year was finally the year. Here is Rhett doing some final wiring at 2:00 a.m. on Halloween Eve. Yes, we stayed up that late to finish this guy.

Louisa is rearranging her pumpkind head witch jack o'lantern. A fun alternative to carving the pumpkin - and a little more timely too. Thanks Grammy and Papa for the fun Halloween gift!

Landen in his first Halloween onesie, with his eyeball clacker toy, and that pacifier was a glow in the dark smirking little ghost face (it was cute). This little guy sure is growing up (1 year is in 3 weeks!) He inch-worm crawls all over these days and is busy, busy exploring but then I get to nurse him and cuddle him like the little baby he still is!Here is Louisa showing Grammy her Halloween costume the morning of....Thanks Grammy for babysitting so Mom could go to the Dr. and find out that all the rest and fluids in the world were not going to get rid of her bacterial sinus infection, ear infections, etc... She is way more fun now that she is better but I kinda liked it when she was sick because I got to watch extra TV!

Rhett at our Trunk or Treat overseeing the Operation Table...complete in scrubs and lab coat. Yes, he also is a surgeon/Dr. (medical kind) like Louisa in the above picture. You can't really see it here but this Frankenstein had blinking LEDs for eyes and steel wool that lined all of the cavities that the kids got to pull their candy out of using metal tongs. When the tongs hit the steel wool, the lights went from yellow circles to red x's and a sound went off - a cackling laugh, a Happy Halloween etc...just like the real operation game with a Halloween theme! Good job Dr. Martineau! Frank was a real hit....the kids were a little rough at times but he survived and will get a few upgrades for next year.

Here is Landen in his scrubs, complete with scrub cap (thank goodness this cap was the only sewing I had to do for our costumes, well and taking in Louisa's lab coat). Are you noticing a trend here?

Me in my surgeon costume. No we are not the cast of Grey's Anatomy. We were just a team od surgeons and Dr.s to go with our Frankenstein operation game.
We ended up winning the grand prize at our Trunk or Treat for the Frank game. We also won best sounds...in the white box is our prize...an amazing Lemon Meringue pie baked by a sister whose pies of-course are regionally famous and which I couldn't taste due to my infected sinuses. How do you like that? Seriously, it was pretty sad because I appreciate good cooking.
Our whole crew all costumed up! All said and done it really was a very Happy Halloween! Next up... Veteran's Day!