Halloween :: Scarecrows + Zombies

Cambria Scarecrows

I made a pact with my girlfriend to get away at the end of October, near her birthday.  We made this plan to meet in Cambria back in the early summer, hugged goodbye after a nice long visit and said we'd make it happen.  As mamas, we get so busy in the day-to-day running of our lives with our kids, husbands, households and community obligations that we sometimes forget to stop and recharge.  Sometimes you need a vacation from your every day and we made good on our promise to each other last weekend and met up in the sleepy little central coast town of Cambria.

Before :: After

As an added bonus and delightful surprise, the town was hosting its 5th annual Cambria Scarecrow Festival.  Hundreds (300+) of creative and whimsical scarecrows were scattered throughout the town and that just made us laugh.  We shopped a bit, walked around town, ate a little, but mostly we spent time in our room talking, sipping adult beverages and laughing until it hurt.

MCM coffee table love + Beth Koelker's Day of the Dead Artwork

I have been looking for a coffee table for our living room since we moved in over seven years ago.  And while we have tried to make due over the years with makeshift options, we were in desperate need of a permanent solution.  And then, BAM!...this little mid-century vintage goodness finds me while I'm in Cambria.  I've been looking for a Noguchi-inspired table for over six months (see here, here and here), but not at a Noguchi price tag.  This one fit the bill and the best part about it?  My husband liked it, too.  Not an easy feat, I assure you.  I brought it in, unwrapped the glass and marveled at how the Thrifting Gods always (eventually) come through.  I love that about thrifting.

Pumpkin Carving Contest
1.  Steve's
2. Grady's
3.  The 1st place winner, Mr. Potter

I arrived home just in time to jump in Steve's car and head to the Annual Chute Pumpkin Carving Contest (See 2009, 2011, 2012).  Steve always creates something great and this year was no exception.  He carved an Angry Fly Pumpkin, while Grady opted for...surprise!...a small Throwing Up Pumpkin.  Ten year old boys are so predictable, aren't they?  The Harry Potter pumpkin ended up taking first place, but not without some controversy.  A few years back they created a no tracing rule and, clearly, this guy cheated!  He did trace, but he also was the favorite of the night.  Next year?  I'm already planning for next year and found a lot of inspiration on this clever and creative art website.

Johns Street Trick-o-treaters

On the eve of Halloween, I was washing my little boy's hair in the bathtub and he shared that he didn't want to wear the Jedi Master costume he had picked out for Halloween.  After some tearful confessions about Star Wars being a little kid thing (is it?), he asked if he could be a baseball player zombie.  Ahhh, yes.  The jig is almost up on being something sweet and fun for Halloween.  Heck, I thought I was stretching when I let him wear some thrifted store bought Star Wars costume last year and was relieved when he cut part of it up and put it under the $5 monk's robe we scored earlier in the month.

Zombie Grady + Dragon Giovanni

Nope.  He wanted to be something with blood.   He problem-solved his lack of a costume with a little bit of help from me (and his friend's mom agreed to do a bit of make-up in the morning before school).  He was happy and only a wee bit bloody.

Mom, this is the best Halloween ever!

We trick-or-treated on our small lane and headed over to Tomales wherein the mothers all commented on how easy it all was this year.  The kids ran from house to house quickly, stayed out of the middle of the road without being told 10,000 times and never strayed far from us.  And while all of this is nice, it made me all a little sad to see my sweet boy transform from being a cute little snuggly dragon in preschool to this 5th grade self-imagined zombie character.  I know, I get it.  It happens, they grow up.  But I'm having a hard time with this stage we're in; the in-between stage.  I can still recall the past Halloween costumes and his utter joy at being (mostly) a dog.  He loved dogs so much.  He wore huskie paw covers, barked a lot, crated himself and could get lost in a world of dog stuffed animals for hours on end.  And let us not forget about his total recall of dog breeds from his well-read dog & puppy encyclopedias.  Yes, his shelf of dog books remain untouched lately and I can't bear to give any of them away.

And so, I watched him enjoy this Halloween and tried to soak it all up.  His joy at his tremendous candy haul and new found freedom in voicing what he wants and watching him make that happen.

I felt like one of those scarecrows I saw in Cambria, quietly observing this emerging young man and it wasn't that scary after all.