The ageless Maddy’s!  That might have been said when a couple of Justin’s college friends saw our Halloween costume party picture. I must say, I don’t disagree!

The party invitation said to dress up as our Netflix, Hulu, etc. TV characters.  Being that we have only watched a few series and we both automatically assumed we would do a couple’scostume, we fairly quickly agreed to be Sarah and Johnny B. from Outer Banks…yes, teenagers!

I had to order a tube top and white jeans as I had neither; once I committed to the costume, Justin ordered his.  

Seriously it felt good to know that we could pull off dressing as high schoolers. 

Actual Halloween night fell on a Monday, and a rainy Monday. While the kids didn’t have school Monday, they did have school Tuesday and with the on and off rain, pizza, trick or treating, and the firepit started at 5:30 and was over by 7:30.  A quick Halloween for our standards.

The older girls had fun and trick or treated on Hillington by themselves…well at least without Justin and I, Siobhan and Neil followed them closely to their dislike.  I ended up driving them to some houses on Limb Tree and Cedar Pond because it was so dark, raining, and I didn’t want any of us to be eaten by the bear! I just waited in the car as I chauffeured them around.

Harper didn’t trick or treat in our neighborhood this year.  She felt strongly about trick or treating with Liza so we let her and I’m glad…her and Liza also ran into two other of their friends. While she loves this neighborhood and would have had a fun time staying here, she had her heart set on being with her school friends.

There was a lot of candy eating, some candy snatching, and guest appearances at bed time.

The annual tradition of picking that perfect family pumpkin!  We went big this year, probably getting the biggest pumpkin we have ever purchased!  

We skipped the slides and the long lines of a fall festival and opted for a local pumpkin patch that seriously has the most unique and amazing pumpkins I have ever seen.  

We took our time exploring the plethora of heirloom pumpkins; there was no rushing, and fun was had by all as we wheeled our wagon around the patch in search of our family of pumpkins.

A view from 550 feet, a 70 second elevator ride, a cloudless sky, a first experience for all of us.

The view was amazing and even better than I expected.  Seeing the city from that high up from all angles really gave me a better appreciation of the city and all that went into the planning and structure of it hundreds of years ago. While there were some nerves from Avery and Harper about the height, all of us loved it.

Waiting for bladders to empty!

Waiting for our 11:00 ticket entrance time.

Waiting for time at the time at the Smithsonian American Art Museum to be over.

Waiting for yummy pizza and a salad and Pi Pizzeria.

The Washington Monument is not far from home and as such I never made visiting the inside a priority so when it dawned on me that it had reopened after being closed for some time, I decided not to take living so close to it for granted and booked us tickets!