Why I Oughta...

I saw this old photo of downtown Elmhurst in an office building earlier this week and while the shot of the old York Theatre is neat, the two things that jump out to me are the two stores to the south.  Elmhurst had an A&P and...a Montgomery Ward & Co.  Click that photo above to make it bigger.  Wards is three signs to the south of the York marquee.  And the A&P is just south. What a neat, vibrant downtown, eh? Oh...and the film "Dirigible" was released in 1931 , so I suppose that *must* be when the photo was taken.

This is what Costco looked like this week:  Christmas wrapping paper, gift tags and lights.   That's a full week ahead of when I spotted the Christmas stuff set up last year . So much for fall, I guess?

Last year it was mice .  This year...I woke up to find 2 squirrels devouring my corn!  I ran outside and chased them off.  But after the meal they had, I'm guessing they'll come back.  I can only hope they don't like tomatoes and carrots. I managed to grab one fully-intact ear off the stalks, but there was close to a dozen more shredded ears laying on the ground.   Based on this story , I'm not the only one to loose their corn harvest to squirrels. Take a look at that ear, though!  Those are some juicy kernels, eh?  Once we taste the ear that is currently in the fridge, I think we'll resolve to give it another go next year.

After the news of the closing of Elmhurst's Bleeding Heart Bakery, I assumed that there would be a void in the cupcake/baking scene in Downtown.  But...that didn't last long.  In what was the Serene Teaz location on Park Avenue right on the tracks is a sign for "Courageous Bakery".  They bill themselves as home of Cupcakes for Courage which is a cupcake truck that we've spotted parked in town.     Hopefully they'll get the doors open soon and we'll find out if they're better than Heavenly Cupcakes which we didn't love the first time we went there.

I took both of my girls to see the Menards Halloween display.  The Babe loved everything but the scary ghosts/witches while The Bird mostly just hung out in her car set. Here's the photo I took of The Babe just one year ago .  Can't believe how much she's grown!

Menards has their Lemax Halloween village back up this year with a few new additions including this Tombstone Quarry with skulls on a conveyor belt.

We made our way to the happiest place on earth this weekend - Menards - and found their entire Halloween display up and running.  One thing I noted is that they've expanded their blowmold collection.  It seemed like they downsized their inflatables at the same time. See those pumpkins on the second shelf?  The two on the right (grey and white) have a glitter on them. They're pretty neat.  The cute ghost on the bottom and the witch on the top are the same ones they had last year.  They did, however add some black lawn flamingos.  See them on the top right in the boxes? I still don't think we'll be getting any blowmolds this year, but I hope to add to our yard display, though!  Those details to come!