It shouldn’t happen to anybody, but it does. And it happened to someone I know. Sheye Rosemeyer is an artist, a renowned portrait photographer, and most importantly, a mother. Almost three years ago, Sheye lost her beautiful little girl, Ava, when three-year-old Ava wandered into the family’s parked car on a hot, sunny day. We all know how dangerous cars can be on the road, but we often overlook how dangerous they can be in our own driveways. Sheye and her family are working to prevent this tragedy from befalling any other family by circulating this postcard to remind us all to keep our cars secured and make sure our children know not to get into a car without an adult, ever. I share it here for all of you who are parents or grandparents, and for the children you love. And for Ava.

October seemed to scream by, but we made sure to pack in the standard Halloween-associated activities: a trip to the pumpkin patch, pumpkin carving, a Halloween parade and party, and of course, trick-or-treating.

We didn’t linger long at the pumpkin patch this year. Unlike the smaller, organic farm we visited last year, the “patch” we picked out in ‘09 was a madhouse, complete with corn mazes, hay rides, pony rides, and a jumping pillow (??). Preferring the basic tractor ride out to the actual pumpkin patch, meandering amongst tangled rows of pumpkins to find the perfect selections for our front porch, and possibly perusing the veggie stand up front before settling on our purchases, the crowds and chaos of the modern-day “pumpkin patch” just weren’t our thing. So we let Violet pick out 3 pumpkins – she designated one for each of us – and a handful of decorative gourds Violet liked and headed out without even a single snapshot. We’ll know better next year.

Carving commenced the following weekend. Daddy got things going, but Violet scooped out most of the innards of her ‘punkin’ – starting with the high tech plastic scoop made (or marketed) expressly for this purpose, and eventually resorting to her bare hands. Projects at daycare in the preceeding weeks left her no stranger to pumpkin seeds, so she dug right in. Excavation completed, the design phase began. Violet had selected designs for each of our pumpkins: an owl for Daddy’s, a scary face for Mama’s (I’m trying not to read too much into that), and a silly face for her own little pumpkin. Violet and Daddy carved her creation together. She was pretty happy with the final result:
The following weekend kicked off with a Halloween parade and party at Violet’s daycare, East Foothills Toddler Care. Just before the parade got started, Daddy put the finishing touches – an eye patch and a black nose – on Violet’s puppy dog costume.

A crowd of care providers, kids, parents, grandparents, and siblings all participated in the parade. Violet and her best friend Casey held hands the whole way. It’ so incredibly sweet to watch the two of them together; they have a truly unusual bond for their age.

Once back at EFTC, the party was underway. The pumpkin dip was delicious, the cider superb (and organic!), but the highlight was the mini Halloween concert the kids put on. So completely adorable.

After all of that, Halloween itself seemed almsot subdued! After getting Violet all decked out as the cutest puppy dog in town once again, we took her “trick-or-treating” at Aunt Kristin and Uncle Mat’s (who says cold peas aren’t a treat??). And then returned home to hit the homes of all of our favorite neighbors. Someone had skipped her nap that day, so we wrapped things up as soon as our snuggle puppy started to turn into a zombie.

I’ve always loved puppies, but this one is definitely my favorite:

We’ve been out of touch for a while! Longer than I’d planned, longer than I would have liked, but we’re finally up and running here at our new (and permanent) home at www.postcardsfromtheeastend – an address that’s hopefully a little easier to remember. (And if you don’t want to have to try to remember, just click the “subscribe” button in the top left corner and you won’t have to!)

The family blog unfortunately fell by the wayside this summer as I worked to establish a new photography business that absorbed all my free time and then some. (Updates on that and other goings-on I’ve missed posting about to come.) As I built a new blog for the business, I discovered just how much more I prefer working with the Wordpress blog format. Since I’d really let the original blog lapse, it seemed like a good time to switch . . . so here we are. It’s good to be back. I’ve missed this, and learned during our hiatus that more family and friends than I realized have, too. I’ll be doing my best to keep it current, starting with a recap of our Halloween and Halloween-related festivities that I promise will be up very soon. Okay, so I’m already a little behind . . .

Finally, in the spirit of tardiness, a shot of our now two year old girl from about a month and a half ago – before the summer left us for another few seasons. Better late than never, right?

See you soon!