ALL DAHLED UP PARTY

And baack to our literary party update! I posted about our fox costumes here, and I want to make sure to document the party from that day.  I loved Roald Dahl books and loved reading through some of my favorites with Sloane and Logan. How glorious it is to get giddily happy about books in this way and have other people be that way as well! For this year's party, we had each family who wanted to attend sign up for a book to read, bringing a food from their book, and give a brief presentation about the book, i.e. acting out a scene, telling their favorite part. Some photos below:

Mignon found these labels and fashioned them onto chocolate bars to make Wonka bars! And one of them had a golden ticket :)

The girls and I had just finished reading "The Twits" earlier that week so we especially appreciated Martha has Mrs. Twit and her little monkey. 

Look at these ladies! This was the party planning committee this year and I love their sparky, book-loving, silly, creative beings with all my heart. 

I'm kicking myself for not getting a photo of the tree that my cousin Lois did, but I got this one here of the peach that Martha did up...with holes for picture taking shenanigans!

Our fox family! I love the little chicken and duck we got for our baby foxes. 

The Clinches as "The Minpins"

Robinsons as "The Twits"

Campbells as "Boy" (specifically, "The Mouse Plot")

Moons as "The Enormous Crocodile" 

Kims as "James and the Giant Peach" 

Stubblefields as "James and the Giant Peach"

Wards as "Danny, the Champion of the World"

Parks as "The BFG"

Leary's as "Fantastic Mr. Fox"

Agabas as "Matilda"

Welch's as "Matilda" 

Capeheart's as "The Magic Finger"

Banisters as "Fantastic Mr. Fox"

Hurray for everyone! 

And a few photos that Martha took of Ken and me 

OCEAN ISLE IN OCTOBER

Before we completely slip into the winter months, I wanted to post about our little getaway to Ocean Isle, NC last month (which is about right; the current rate of my blog posts has been at a consistent one month delay). It was such a sweet and much needed time away that it is soothing just to look back some of these photos.

We almost didn't make the trip out there because we got news report that a hurricane was coming, along with a ton of rain, and that it could potentially affect that area.  We tracked the weather and made the ultimate decision to go for it and we are so happy we did. We barely got any of the storm, but when we woke up on the first morning, the sky was a gorgeous swirl of gray, the wind was strong but warm, and it was all very romantic. That first evening, we went out to the beach and it was maybe the most gorgeous scene I have ever been in.

My cousin Lois was able to join over this weekend and I loved having her with us, and also quite importantly, we were able to all celebrate our dear friend Mignon's birthday together.  We spent that day on the beach, I made us a dinner of plantain lasagna, and Mignon made a caramel cake with candied apples (of which I ate 3 or 4!). 

The slow pace of this trip was a balm, and I reaffirmed my love for the North Carolina beach in October. Here are some of my favorite photos from that weekend:

goodbye sound, until next time.