Monthly Archives: October 2014

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays.   I love to dress up and what is not to love about free candy!

I dressed up as a fairy this year.

Lydia dressed up as a tree.

Did you dress up for Halloween?

Lydia came over to spend time with me on Saturday. We decided to spend time in my back yard to take advantage of the beautiful fall weather. I asked Lydia what she wanted to do. Her response was “Athena, you should decide, your ideas are always more exciting than mine.” After thinking for a minute I suggested climbing the big Birch tree.

I was shocked when nature loving Lydia said that the tree was too big to climb. She stuck to her story even after I assured her that I had been in it just last week. We have climbed smaller trees together before so when she explained that there are many ways to enjoy trees without climbing them, I began to wonder if she was a little afraid of heights. When she suggested that I could climb the tree and she would stay on the ground to cheer me on it sparked an idea.

I pointed up into the tree and pointed out a branch, then dared Lydia to climb to it. I assured her I would stay on the ground to make sure everything was ok and would coach her up.

On the first big branch she looked down, and asked if I was sure it was a good idea. After a little reassurance and a reminder not to look down any more, Lydia continued to climb.

When she got to the branch I had pointed out she sat down to rest with a huge smile on her face. Lydia can be reluctant to try new things, but once she does she usually enjoys herself.

When Lydia got back to the ground I gave her a high five for facing her fear. We sat down on the grass and I asked her what her favorite thing about fall is.

Our lists were a bit different, but and both agreed that jumping in piles of leaves was in our top three fall activities. We were a bit bummed that the birch tree hasn’t dropped enough leaves to make a good jumping pile yet.

Talk of fall soon turned to talk of Halloween costumes. We talked about going together on a themed costume this year but couldn’t come up with anything that we were both excited about, plus Lydia has a great idea for her costume, I can’t wait to see how it turns out.

Even though our costumes won’t coordinate we agreed to go trick-or-treating together this year. I am excited that Halloween falls on a Friday this year, since it isn’t a school night I think I may be able to convince my parents to extend my trick-or-treating time.

What is your favorite part of fall? Are you excited about Halloween?