Hello October, you beautiful sexy beast of a month.

I was planning on posting this on October 1, but since it’s the month of October, I’m finally posting this on October 9. Because October is insanely busy, yet incredibly awesome. Here is why:

• October is the new December: Holiday parties are out, Halloween parties are in. Maybe we get invited to two holiday parties, but the Halloween parties are endless. Everyone just loves to have some good times dressing up. And I think everyone is too stressed out to host a party in December. So October it is. (P.S. If you’re having a holiday party, please invite us…please. I actually LOVE holiday parties, especially with raffles and a gift exchange and hot cocoa with Peppermint Schnapps. So please keep that in mind too. And I promise we’re fun and I promise I won’t talk (too much) about my Great Kindergarten Search.)
• Speaking of December: October kicks off the holiday spirit! The yummy smells, the pumpkin everything, the delicious special flavor lattes, the 95 degree weather instead of 105 degree weather…hooray! (And yes, the Christmas shopping HAS begun.)
• Fact: 25% of the population was born in October: Ok so I’m not sure if this is true, but it seems like EVERYONE has a birthday in October and EVERYONE has a super fun party to celebrate. In fact my birthday is in October. Which is maybe why I love the month so much. But I tell you, trying to celebrate everyone is awesome and completely exhausting.
• October is the time to get married: I think we’ve been to more weddings in this month than any other month. Because October is awesome and everyone wants to celebrate in it and become a part of it.
• Pumpkin patches are the new, local Disneylands: Ok, between Underwood Farms Fall Harvest Festival, Pierce College’s Halloween Harvest Festival (sadly in it’s last year!), and then Tapia Brothers somewhat low key pumpkin patch, there are simply not enough weekends in October to celebrate all of those birthdays and attend all of those weddings and congratulate all of those people on their anniversaries and really visit all of those pumpkin patches and partake in all of their activities. The pony rides, the music, the food, the corn mazes, the hayrides!
• October crafts: come on. Come on! So much fun is to be had at home in October! I made these with D-Bop by myself when he was 2. So simple and so cute.
• October treats: caramel apples, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin beer, oh my! There is just not enough time in this month to devour all of the delicious treats it has to offer.
• Photo ops are incredible: again, the birthday parties, the weddings, the pumpkin patches with those things at the pumpkin patch that you put your face through to look like a ghost or scarecrow, kids eating corn at the pumpkin patch, kids holding pumpkins at the pumpkin patch, kids in their costume at a dress up party, kids in costume on Halloween night—charge those batteries, because your camera needs to be at your side the entire month of October. And your littles are only this little once, so if you’re going to photo-document any month, this is the month. They will thank you one day when they are posting their #tbt pic.
• The ever so important costume decision: Ok, Halloween costumes are the one item in this day and age that can still sell out and / or be tricky to find online and / or in stores. So if you’re looking for something specific, you can’t just stroll out to a Halloween store on Halloween day, pick up that costume, and be on your merry way. No. You need to PLAN. Trouble is that littles usually change their mind. (More on that later.) So there is a very specific window you have that you must finally decide that the decision is FINAL and that there is absolutely NO LOOKING BACK.

And that is why October is the best and busiest month out of the year, and why everyone wants to be October.