Category Archives: Celebrations

Pre-Halloween Festivities Part One

Nov
08

Posted by: Maggie

I’m back! I actually wanted to post last week, but my computer’s hard drive is full and I didn’t have the time to clear space to upload all my Halloween photos. I took time over the weekend, cleared out my files, and uploaded all my recent photos. So, I’m back to regular posting.

I love Halloween. I have since I was little. I love all that is spooky and scary and dark and creepy. I realize that in the last several years I’ve gotten lazy about celebrating.  So I wanted to try to do more Halloween things this year. We ended up doing about half the things that I planned since Eleanor was feeling sick Halloween weekend. We had to skip a Halloween party and a Haunted House outing that we had planned. But we did manage to do a few fun Halloweeny things.

The weekend before Halloween we spent a Sunday morning at a Pumpkin Festival in Hart Park.  It kinda sucked but Eleanor still had some fun. We got to see a few minutes of a Creatures of the Night animal show.

And then we went on a Haunted Hay ride.  They usually hold this at night, haunted house style with guys jumping out and other scariness, but they were holding a daytime version safe for the kids. The following photos were taken from on the ride.

Eleanor is pretty brave, but she did seem concerned by all the scary guys.

The best part of the ride was toward the end when the hay ride was held up by a band of desperados looking for candy.

Our next Halloween adventure was the Harvest Festival at Eleanor’s preschool on the Friday afternoon before Halloween. There was a bounce house and a bunch of games to play.

Eleanor played a few of the games, but was mostly interested in the bounce house.  She wore her cowgirl costume (She wanted to be Woody from Toy Story).

We spent most of the festival playing on the playground rather than partaking in the festivities. I think Eleanor was pretty excited to have us there to play with her at school.

We did get to enjoy a delicious Halloween cupcake. Eleanor’s favorite part of the afternoon!

After a couple hours Eleanor was pretty exhausted so we headed home for family movie night!

More Pre-Halloween fun tomorrow!

Come to Sunset in the Vineyard!

Oct
19

Posted by: Maggie

I have been a member of Assistance League Santa Clarita for almost a year now. They are a national charitable organization started in Los Angeles in the 1890s and now have local chapters all across the country. A little while back I posted over at Maggie Keegan Gross Photography some promo photos I did for their fall fundraiser Sunset in the Vineyard.

Well, the tickets for Sunset in the Vineyard are now on sale and selling quickly! The event should be lots of fun, with music, a silent auction, gourmet food, beers, and wines from local growers and makers! AND it is held in a gorgeous backyard vineyard!

Most importantly, the proceeds from the event go to support Assistance League’s programs helping local families in need. Their largest program Operation School Bell provides children, who otherwise would go without, new school clothes and supplies at the start of each school year.

I would love it if my local Cranky fans would come out and support this event! Go to the Assistance League’s website HERE to buy your tickets now!

Summer’s Last Hurrah!
Ace Hotel, Palm Springs: Part Two

Sep
28

Posted by: Maggie

After checking out our room we went to visit with the gang to discover that after a morning of vintage furniture perusing and dinner grocery shopping they were now heading to the pool. So we went back to our room changed into our swimsuits and headed down. Sorry we left the cameras in the room. I figured no one wants photos of themselves in swimsuits on the blog anyway. And I have requested that Amy not post photos of me in my, albeit very cute kinda retro, bikini. Although, Amy if you’re reading this, I’ll amend that request to say that you may post photos ONLY IF they are flattering PLEASE! I can’t let that spray tan that I paid good money for go unblogged.  Although if you look back at my bathroom mirror photo from yesterday I think I look pretty fabulously tan.

Anyways, we hung out by the pool talking and drinking cocktails and reading magazines for a few hours. It was pretty fantastic.

Then we all changed into our dinner outfits and walked on over to The Schubert’s room. Their room had this great big patio.

I brought a bunch of stuff for appetizers (and so did the rest of the kids) for our little party on the patio that evening. So while the men had gone off looking for a travel grill, we put out the hor d’oeuvres.

I made these caprese skewers with The Schubert’s homegown basil. Delicious!

I decided to try a new cocktail for this very special occasion. A greyhound, it’s 1/3 vodka, 2/3 grapefruit juice, and completely delicious. And it looks pretty too. It would look nicer if I had remembered to add the lime I had cut to for garnish. Oh well.

So the men grilled some steaks for the meat eaters and some veggies for Josh and I on the mini grills.

Very fun! It was such a nice little relaxing dinner with friends.

After dinner we walked over to a nearby outdoor area with a big fireplace, a couch and a bunch of chairs.

I brought out my ipod dock, and we listened to music, and had wine and scotch and cigars. Josh and I and the other ladies passed on the cigars.

It was the perfect child-free evening with friends, alcohol, music, and a hotel room to just walk back to.

As it got late everyone decided to go back to the pool, but Josh and I opted to go back to our room for some more child-free activities. Like falling asleep in the middle of a conversation about whether we should order some dessert from room service.

The conclusion of our trip on Thursday!

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