A Michigan Halloween

Hello there! I hope everyone's Halloween was safe and fun.
I know it has been a while - our lives have been in a bit of an upheaval but I am back now! My camera is fixed and everything else is sorting itself out just fine.

I was up in Michigan for Halloween with my mother and 2 of my sisters. We had a blast at my grandparent's big, old house. There were close to 700 trick-or-treaters who stopped by along with family and friends. It was my first Halloween up there but maybe it can become a tradition...?!

Husband and I carved our pumpkin before I left.
I think later he added creepy eyes.


My grandfather made this sign of his last name a few years back and my uncle found the perfect spot for it.


We were glad to see grandpa almost every day that week. We took him and my grandma's cousin Cleo for coffee at McDonald's.

Cleo and Mom.

We had big plans for Halloween. I made these ghost cookies and we cooked up a big pot of chili. We made ghost grilled cheese sandwiches to go along with the chili and we had carmel apples, eyeball deviled eggs and plenty of candy to go around.


Mom was the great designer of the eyeball eggs.



Our set up.
Oh yeah and apple cider punch with a floating hand. So creepy.


Brittany made a perfect corpse bride.

Uncle Ron and Aunt Jackie.
My Uncle looked so scary I can't believe anyone came up for candy!

Teresa was Thing Two, Mom found a cute 60's dress in her closet upstairs, Brittany is corpse bride of course and I dressed in my grandmas old clothes and went as a vampire from the 40's.
We scared the candy right out of kids hand's.





Have you seen a cuter Alice and Mad Hatter?

My 2nd cousin Ali was Princess Darth Vader! I love it.


Brittany and Ali.


Im not so good at the night portraits without a tripod but here are my Uncle and Brittany on the front porch after dark. We carved 2 pumpkins with the letter B for Baker for the front steps.

And later that week we had storage wars! My Uncle owns a storage unit and he said we could go through one that skipped town.


We found lots of junk and a few treasures. I think these folks were hoarders for sure.


See that guy on the tractor? He is 90 something and they took his license away. So he drives his little tractor around town lol.


We had a wonderful time in Michigan. We almost froze on Halloween but it was worth it. I hope yours was a blast too!

Most Magical Weekend Ever!

Great things happened this weekend. First - my baby sister became engaged!!!! We have all been looking forward to this for some time and now it's here. I can't wait to see my sister and her Fiance, Travis start their new life together. They are a beautiful and super fun couple! Congratulations Brittany and Travis!!!

And then on Saturday night my friend Cheryl had a baby girl, Scarlett! She is 9 pounds and super cute. Congratulations Cheryl, Tommy and Angelina on your new addition!!

Here I am with the new Bride showing off her bling :)

A close-up of her beautiful ring. Great job Travis!


They were engaged in Epcot, Brittany's favorite place to be.
My friend Carolyn and I threw them an engagement dinner on Saturday night. I have called my friend Carolyn, Bride since she became engaged and have continued it until this day. I don't know what I'm gonna do about that now but it could become confusing lol.


Here we are prepping our food in Carolyn's beautiful new kitchen.


We used her fine china for the first time. We got so fancy with things, it was great!
The boys had a big race earlier that day where they biked, ran and canoed. We knew they would be hungry so we started them off right away with some meats and cheeses.


I am so grateful that we were in this together. I can't imagine making all of this food alone. It was like Thanksgiving.


Bride had this recipe from Sandra Lee's cookbook for filo sticks. They were delicious and don't they look fancy?

We had Brittany's favorite for her - Rosa Regale.


The boys socialized over beer and football in the living room.

And the women socialized over wine in the kitchen. There is much to discuss and plan now.

The happy Fiances.



Bride's gorgeous dinner table.



We had a delicious salad with baked goat cheese to start. Then we had stuffed shells and garlic bread, all made from scratch. For desert, vanilla ice cream topped with fresh whipped cream, blueberries and rasberries.
We were all quite satisfied :)

Congratulations again to the happy couple!


So Sunday, the kids went off to SeaWorld and the Yonfa's and Elmore's went to a Sunday Gospel Brunch at a fabulous place called Bananas.
The Gospel Brunch just happened to be a drag show. We had no idea!

Poor Husband was targeted right away. At first he didn't know what to think.




Hahaha well it was interesting to say the least.
The show was a blast, the food was outstanding and not expensive at all. I had chicken and waffles which were to die for.

Thank you to our hosts, the Yonfas, for the wonderful weekend.
I love my Carolyn Bride!

I hope your weekend was as exciting as mine. Have a great week ya'll!
(All photos by Albert Yonfa)

Weekend Review

I thought I would show the shellers out there a cleaned up photo of the huge shell I found at Honeymoon Island. So here it is! Next to that is a conch shell I found in my grandparent's basement in Michigan. Who knows how long it had been there - it was quite dirty. I spent the weekend bleaching it out and it's looking much better.

Here are some other shells I found. I found quite a variety that day. Thanks Lee!



Yesterday, Husband and I went to Weedon Island for some Kayaking.
There were a couple of these guys hanging out. They had no fear at all.


It was a nice afternoon. We did have a scare while we were out there. We still aren't sure if it was a manatee or a large ray but we startled something BIG underneath our kayak. It caused a huge wake and soaked us both. I was afraid to put my paddle back in the water for a little while!

Husband did most of the paddling after that ;)

Have a great Monday.

Michigan

Last weekend we were in Michigan. My Father got Husband tickets to the USF vs. Notre Dame game for Christmas last year. So we flew into Michigan and the boys drove to Indiana for the game. They had a blast and the Bulls won!!

We spent the rest of the weekend at my Grandparent's 108 year old home in Howard City.

It's beautiful there. The weather was warm the first couple of days and then it dropped into the 60's before we left.


Brittany and my Mom were there for a week before I came up. They got to visit with my Cousin Dawn and my Second Cousins Josh and Benjamin. Aren't they cute, I mean handsome?

This is another Second Cousin of ours - Ali. She is adorable and hilarious!

My Grandfather likes to keep busy so Brittany and Mom painted a birdhouse with him. I think it turned out beautiful.

We have to stop at the Corner Bar in Rockford whenever we are in MI.
This is where Dad ate 12 hot dogs TWICE and has his name on the wall TWICE!
Husband had done it once and so of course he had to catch up. He sat down for his 12 and was successful. Now Husband has his name up there TWICE and I hope this will put an end to this madness!


It's so pretty up there.


We stopped at a farmer's market one day and found lots of animals there.
See the kittens up there?


We saw goats.
And Roosters with feathery feet!


And a Pig. He was very curious about us.

And happy to see us.



These cows live right around the corner from my Aunt and Uncle.

And this is my Grandparent's home.
It has quite a history. We love it.

This is just some of my Grandmother's milk glass collection.

We spend a lot of time on the big porch.

Mom and Grandpa.


Aunt Jackie and Uncle Ron - My mom's brother.





It was a great weekend, but too short. I am heading back in October to experience Halloween there. They get between 600 and 700 kids for trick or treating at their house! I can't wait.