Let me start out by wishing my Dad a very happy 75th birthday!!
Halloween. Kim made every day festive for us, but, especially Halloween. She would schedule trips to the pumpkin patch, pumpkin carving. There would be baking, of course - her pumpkin pie had no known comparison. She hand made each of the bambini's costumes for each of their first three years...incredible.
Kim's scarecrow, a yearly fixture...Andrea kept up the tradition this year, building one out of Kim's old overalls!
We've been members of the Reid Park Zoo since 1997. They have the best Howl-o-ween there! This was the first year since '97 that the bambini did not make it...
You could not hope to compete with Kim at pumpkin carving! One of her nicknames was 'Spooky'. The above photo shows why.
She made the best costumes...for herself and for the kids. There was the year she was Cruella DeVil. The year she was the Bride of Frankenstein, we won contests. One year, she dressed me as Nikki Sixx and went as my girlfriend ( I did NOT o.d. on heroin, but she did kick start my heart).
This was my life. I took the day off, so I could do my best to make it a special day for the bambini...I worked at it all day (after spending a little time for breakfast with Angie - Happy Anniversary!). I dug through boxes, finding her old costumes and looked through album after album trying to unearth photos of her wonderful costumes. Autumn helped me. I had distinct flashbacks of that day, almost a year ago, where Kim and I looked through old photos to help Autumn create a 'All About Me' poster for school. Kim was overwhelmed with emotion and began to cry. I held her and she wept 'Dave, what a wonderful life we had.' She was right, and I found all of those memories as I went through our old photos. I'll keep trying to uncover some of her costumes to share with you.
Tonio, Mitchell (Soul Sucker), Autum and Hadley get ready to go Trick or Treatin!
Found an ostrich in my garage (sorry Amy)
Alex and Cody transformed our house into a crypt to hand out candy and scare Trick or Treaters.
Last year, this time, Kim was on the fourth floor of the women's center of St. Joseph's. I ran into one of her old nurses, Heather, as we trick or treated tonight. The bambini remember, during their visit with her, that techs Vivian and Deborah brought them Halloween Happy Meals. Kim and I sat and reminisced about our favorite Halloweens together....
Oh my gosh, Dave! Charlotte and I were JUST talking about Kim's Cruella de Ville costume today! She was telling me how she remembers Kim and Tonio's costumes that year parading around the neighborhood! I love it! These times of year, there are so many things that remind me of Kim or that simply make me think of her...the other day, someone brought pumpkin bread to school and I immediately remembered that Kim had once shared her pumpkin muffin recipe with us! Thanks for all the photos!
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