Halloween and Thanksgiving

Wow!  We've passed two major holidays without updates, and are coming up on a third!  I've got to get this post out before the next round of holidays hits!

Brandon and I had a fabulous time at Halloween.  The owner of my workplace hosted a large party at her house (if it even fits in the category of house... more like mansion), and we deliberated for many days what we should be.  We considered many options... Star Trek characters?  Mary Poppins and Bert? or something altogether random but creative?

In the end, we opted for some of our Disney favorites, our love for them resurrected by the recent film "Moonrise Kingdom" (whose main characters would've been fabulous to dress up as!!!  Alas...)

Can you guess?  Even Smokey got in on the fun!!

Perhaps you'll notice my bow... or the thimble (kiss?) I strung around my neck.  Or maybe Smokey's wings gave it away... or Brandon's hat.  Perhaps if you could see that Brandon was wearing leggings and had a pan flute hanging from his belt, you might be able to guess better.

No?

We dressed as Peter Pan and Wendy, and Smokey stayed home from the party but sported her Tinker Bell wings for the photo ops :)

On another note...

We had fun decorating the house for fall!!  We strung iridescent pumpkin lights on our mantel, and decorated with dried gourds and pinecones and hay... oh, and the fabric under the mantel just brings it all together!

We were invited to some of Brandon's coworkers' (and our friends!!) Thanksgiving feast.  Because his school is so awesome and attracts so many worldly folk, there is a large chunk of us Texas transplants.  These friends got word that we didn't have anyone to stuff our faces with for the holiday, and they happily invited us to their table.  And what a lovely table!

As you can see, we stayed well into the night and enjoyed s'mores by the bonfire (and the Punkin Chunkin championship in the living room!!).  We had a most delightful time with our dear friends!  So fortunate to have met such benevolent people.

And the next day, we wasted no time in getting ready for the next season-- WOOHOO!  Christmas in tee shirts, here we come!!!!

Instagramming Austin

Oh, yes.  Blogging just got more fun.  Instagram makes everything more fun!  Here are snippets of the last few months of our lives Instagrammed!!

This one actually happened a long time ago-- like, in July.  It's the Sound of Music outdoor musical production at Zilker Theater!  And it was FREE!  It followed the original theatrical script and score instead of the movie version, and I loved it.  I'd never seen the stage version!

The following are samples from my new favorite food truck: Mister Fruit Cup.  It's pretty much just like it sounds, plus some incredible sauces and toppings and whatnot.  What is fabulous is that this truck is right next to some others that have great "main courses," so we'll get a taco or hotdog from them and then a fruitcup on the side!  Genius.  And this "trailer park" is super friendly and hospitable because none of the trucks are competing for the same business (fruit cups are like a side item, the others are main dishes, and then there's a dessert truck too!)

Oh, and I just want to throw it out there that not only do all of our movie theaters offer full menus and restaurant-style table service, but our barbershops/hair salons offer complimentary beverages while you wait.  Oh, Austin-- you do know how to please a gal.

This concert was a part of ACL-- Austin City Limits.  We didn't buy tickets to the massive Woodstock-esque (I'm assuming) festival, but every night some of the bands go to local venues and play, and you can pay for that concert individually.  Here is our favorite band, the Punch Brothers:

Below are some of the lovely displays of wildlife that we've witnessed while living on the lake.  The first is just a moth that decided to take a nap on our window... but it reminded me of something much more beautiful!

There is a pair of swans that lives here.  Always the two of them together.  Never more, never less.

Here our swan friends are with some of our other residents-- a great blue heron (who, by the way, screams bloody murder and flies into the lake if you slam your car door while he's resting on the bank!  But he's always there wading on the sand bar to greet me as I leave oh-so-early in the morning for work) and some ducks.  The ducks usually swim in massive clusters, but this very early morning, only two were at the party.

This is the moon rising over the lake :)  I can't complain that the sun sets so early when I get this to view in its place!

Yes.  Yes, yes, yes.  Goes without need for captions.  And check out my darlings down the path...

And I'll leave you with few more pics of my lovely darlings...