I’m sitting in my office working with the window open. It’s 67 degrees, the skies are blue and the trees have gorgeous fall color. The dogs are romping around in the backyard while the leaves flutter down and I feel a deep sense of contentment. I had a wonderful Halloween weekend with Finn. He is at such a fun age and I genuinely love hanging out with him and seeing the world through his eyes. Everything from everyday experiences to holidays feels a little more magical when you’re doing life with a four year old!

I’m not sure when Halloween turned into a multi-day (or multi-week!?) extravaganza. I was joking with some other parents at Trunk or Treat that when we were kids Halloween was one night of trick or treating and that was that. We stretched our Halloween into a trip to a local farm, a costume road race, trunk or treat, a Halloween parade/party at preschool and trick or treating. It was awesome!

Here are some highlights.

FRIDAY AT HALL FAMILY FARM

Finn and I made a trip out to Hall Family Farm on Friday. We missed visiting this local farm the past couple of falls due to COVID and the farm moving. Our last visit was in 2019! I could resist creating a side-by-side collage of us on the hayride.

Hall Family Farm was established in the 1920s and this was their third relocation due to Charlotte’s growth and sprawl outwards. The new farm is their biggest yet – 160 acres. It’s located in Lancaster, South Carolina and they open to the public during the fall for pumpkins and fall-themed activities and in the spring for strawberry picking.

We spent a little over two hours at the farm and filled our time with a hayride, the kid’s corn maze, an epic slide built into a hill that you went down on burlap sacks and other kid-focused activities.

It took us almost an hour to get to the farm but it was well worth the drive. I love their new spot and we’ll certainly be back next year. I think we’re going to tackle the big corn maze next year! The staff said you’d be surprised how many families go through it together. It’s two miles long and takes 45-90 minutes to complete.

We shared a cheese pizza when we got home and called it a night!

RUNNING SCARED 5 MILER

I got an email a couple of weeks ago about a Halloween-themed road race and couldn’t resist signing up to run it. Finn likes doing races with me and I thought he’d get a big kick out of dressing in costume AND dressing up the stroller.

He’s super into Jurassic World and loves the dinosaur Blue so I rolled with that theme. I ordered our costumes from Target and the stroller decorations from Amazon. You should have seen me decking out the stroller on Friday night at 10p. There was a lot of tape, glue dots and safety pins involved.

We had a great run! The race started at Midnight Mulligan which is a brewery on the West side of Charlotte. I don’t get over to this area of town much so the course was a fun one. At one point it took us all the way towards the Panthers stadium uptown and Finn liked seeing all of the big buildings. It was also entertaining to see all of the other runner’s costumes.

My chip time was 47:29 (9:30 pace) which I would be happy with any day but especially pushing a stroller. I made it through the whole race without having to walk up hills until the final hill. It was only about 0.3 miles from the finish but it was killer! Finn kept saying, “mommy run…we’re not going to win.” I had to break it to him that our chances of winning had long passed but that it was exciting to cross the finish. Haha. Luckily, that disappointment was rectified when he received a medal at the finish.

POST-RACE TREATS AT THE BATCHMAKER

A quick post-race Google search told me that we were only a few blocks away from The Batchmaker. It was my first time visiting their new space and it was so lovely. Full of yummy homestyle baked goods and very family/kid friendly. I got an oatmeal cream sandwich, an Oreo puddle cookie and some sort of decadent brownie.

If you’re local to Charlotte or visiting, put The Batchmaker on your list! The owner Cris and I have followed each other on Instagram for years and years. She started out making “Batch Boxes” that you could order. Her baked goods got so popular that she opened a storefront. Her first location did great but unfortunately flooded and she had to close and relocate. It’s great to see her back up and doing so well.

TRUNK OR TREATING

We got home from the race late morning and spent the rest of the day hanging out at home and watching the UGA/Florida game. Our evening activity was a trunk or teat at our swim club. I’d never been to a trunk or treat before so I assumed everyone dressed up their cars and handed out candy. There were actually only about 15 of us who did and the rest was people from the neighborhood who came to walk through. Luckily, it was a breeze to set up because I just repurposed our Jurassic World costumes and decorations.

I was so proud of my little dinosaur! He went to each car once to trick or treat and then helped me pass out candy to all of the other kids. He was saying, “Trick or treat! Do you want our candy!?”

We caught the last quarter of the Georgia/Florida game when we got home and watched the Dawgs win. I am so nervous to play Tennessee this Saturday! Biggest game of our season so far.

A SLOW SUNDAY

After our Friday and Saturday activities, a slow Sunday was just what we needed. Lots of rest, relaxation, laundry and tidying. A friend of mine stopped by for a visit and we chatted and played with Finn for over two hours. It was really nice to catch up with her. Finn and I wrapped up the day with a long walk with the dogs and a quick stop into ALDI to get a few things we needed for the week.

HALLOWEEN! 

Finn got to wear his Halloween costume to school on Monday. He chose this Iron Man costume back in September and was so looking forward to wearing it for Halloween! And three cheers to me for ordering his Halloween costume so early. Last year we were at the costume store the day before Halloween. I did not want to relive that chaos.

The 4s and TK class at Finn’s preschool does a Halloween parade and my word, it was the best thing. I had to fight back tears a couple of times. One of my favorite places to be is in that preschool. So much sweetness, innocence and kids being kids.

Once the Halloween parade wrapped up at the preschool, I headed over to Charlotte Yoga to teach my 10:45a class. Finn picked out this butterfly costume for me when we were shopping for his Iron Man costume. He loves rainbow colors and the book The Hungry Caterpillar so it was perfect. I paired the butterfly wings with this headband. Everyone was surprised to see me dressed up and loved my costume.

As I started class I shared a little about how much joy and magic I had found in my Halloween weekend with Finn and talked about how we can welcome more play, magic and joy into our lives as adults – on the mat and off!

I picked Finn up from school at 1p and we came home for some down time. Finn’s dad picked him up around 4:30p and he had an awesome time trick or treating over there. I sat on my front porch, handed out candy and chatted with neighbors. Finn got home just as things were slowing down. He showed me his impressive candy haul (he got alllllll the Reese’s – YES!) and we got changed into matching Halloween pajamas.

I am looking forward to the rest of this week. I’m teaching a lot of yoga and have a couple of fun dinners with friends planned. The last two months of 2022 are going to be good ones. I just know it.

Thanks for being here and letting me share a little bit of us with you.

QUESTIONS 

How was your Halloween? What activities did you do? Did you dress up? 

Have you ever worn a costume for a road race? 

How are you feeling going into the last stretch of 2022?