The Ronins rule: A very Ronin Halloween

I cannot believe October is already over. I miss it so much. I love everything about October.

Well, really, I love everything leading up to Halloween. Pumpkin patches. Fear Fest. Michael Myers. Spooky decorations. Candy sales. EVERYTHING, I TELL YOU.

And I'm so sad that it's all over.

October was a good month for The Ronins. Yours truly has been making an effort to eat better and exercise daily and so far, so good. I've learned that if I turn on some PBS, throw some pillows/toys/snacks on the floor and (most importantly) set up a barricade by blocking my exercise bike with the coffee table, I can get a solid 45 minutes to myself. I don't know that I've lost any weight but I'm feeling better and that's reason enough to keep going. (Insert round of encouraging cheers here.)

Oh, oh... and that's probably why this blog hasn't been updated in a while. I put it on the back burner for a bit to focus on more important things. I hope you don't mind!

Anyway, back to the Halloween festivities. Yeah! October! It was fun! We spent a lot of time watching The Jack Skeleton Movie. (Better known as The Nightmare Before Christmas. Obvs.) But we did other things, too!

We went to many a pumpkin patch. Much better than last year's poop debacle.

We spent some time at Disneyland, of course. I love how everything is decked out for Halloween. Makes my spooky little heart skip a beat.

Oh, and of course we wore costumes! Well, truth be told, Lilly wears a costume, like, every day.

We also painted pumpkins. Lilly did a great job! I, on the other hand, well...

It's a lot harder than it looks! I painted and re-painted that Franken-face a million times before I finally said screw it and left it like that. Aaron teased me mercilessly. C'est la vie.

In case you don't know me at all, I feel the need to emphasize this fact: I LOVE HALLOWEEN. I love it. I love it like it's one of my babies. Like it's this cute little baby right here:

Unfortunately, Halloween and Ronin babies don't get along. At least, not yet.

Halloween 2009: Lilly was a few weeks old with a wiener immune system. We spent the entire night in our pajamas at home. No trick-or-treaters. Just postpartum sobfests.

Halloween 2010: Lilly's first time trick-or-treating! She couldn't walk. My back hurt. We went home.

Halloween 2011: (Also known as the night I almost ditched my family and moved to Mexico.) Lilly absolutely hated her costume. The trunk-or-treat event we tried to attend had a wait time of more than one hundred years. Lilly unleashed her hidden tantrum throwing talent. I wondered why I ever wanted kids.

Things were looking up for this year's festivities. (Honestly, anything would be an improvement after the nightmare that was Halloween 2011.)

Lilly picked out a wonderful costume. (Mama! Addie and me can be twins! Owlies! Hoooot! Hooooot!) She was ready to trick-or-treat. We were set. But then suddenly, she had a fever. And a cough. And no voice. I prayed for a healing but come Halloween morning, she was still sicky. Aaron, Lilly and I talked it over. We knew we couldn't skip the candy collecting. We decided to go out. Even if we only made it to one house, we were gonna do some trick-or-treating.

And I'm so glad we did! It was perfect. We didn't stay out very late but we still had a great night. There were no tantrums. No tears. Just lots of smiles and candy and Halloween splendor.