At the beginning of October, we have a family tradition of finding some sort of costume around the house and taking a photo for our annual costume party invitations. Yesterday we did just that! It’s our 5th consecutaive year doing this and it’s so fun seeing Greta, errr Squints!, get more and more into it. This year’s costume was born completely around that (non-stretch! no stretch at all!) vintage bathing suit my mom had stashed in the dress up. Charly is wearing my shirt, and Smalls is killing me–Faye Faye, you nailed it. Tweaking a popular tagline from Sandlot, and we had our invites: We’ll bob for apples in the toilet…and you’ll LIKE IT!

Along with our invitations, we lay out (for us and you) what projects we want to get done before welcoming 150 guests into our home for the big party. We have been known to get dozens of projects done with that kind of pressure, but this year, coming off completing the kitchen–the largest project we have ever done!–we only have a couple projects on deck to check off before the costume party on the 24th.

1. The Pantry. Before we started the kitchen, we boxed up almost all of our kitchen stuff and brought it downstairs to a spare bedroom. It’s still almost all there because some of it really belongs in the pantry. Chris and I are starting the pantry tonight (date night to Lowe’s! Woot!) and hope to finish it this weekend?  How long could it take? We’ll see. We are still waiting for our big idea to hit, but maybe pantries don’t require any big ideas.

2. The Coat Closet. Opposite the washer and dryer in the new laundry area, and on the other side of the wall from the new pantry, we made a coat closet and there’s even a wall there for a mirror. This should be a pretty simple project, too, but an essential one. Idaho is going to be cold any minute!

3. The Yard/Exterior. Our poor yard has been neglected this summer due to the kitchen. It needs some weeding, mowing, edging. And the front door, which now is sporting two different hardware because our handle BROKE OFF one day, really could use some attention.

So that’s three projects we’re focusing on, and you can look forward to over the next 22 days. Have a great weekend and we’ll see you next week with pantry progress!

See last year’s invitation photo here.