last bit of halloween cuteness

Can't resist getting one last post out of Halloween.  E and A during trick or treating at the office. 

Halloween

Unlike last year, we had a fairly tame Halloween.  I don't know whether to feel relieved or rejected, but in retrospect it was nice not to be so booked up.

So just a few images.  Rich's (and now my) office does a trick or treat for kids, so that kicked off our festivities.  E and A really look forward to this, as there's a lot of attention focused on them and some high quality candy.  We go them dressed in Rich's office and he let E draw on a corner of his whiteboard.  (it says I had a gift, plus she labeled herself "me"). 

 The company has three buildings and we're based in the hinterlands.  I got a little work in while RIch took them to the main building, where there was a DJ and more games. 

 E wearing Daddy's infamous horns he bought many years ago at some festival. 

 I  thought hse was just going to want to be a princess again, but in the month before Halloween she expressed some different ideas.  I popped in the thrift store by my house in mid-September and scored this mermaid outfit as well as Andrew's horse costume.  You've got to buy Halloween stuff early to get the best costumes.  While last year her dress reminded me of a wedding dress, with the fluffing and the arranging, this year we moved into the evening gown portion.  There were times when I actually felt this outfit might be a little too slinky. 

 And the gang - E and A with their neighborhood friends.  Pink princesses dad was telling me about how she insisted on makeup, as did E.  We agreed that there was an age when makeup on little girls was not a good idea, but at 6 it was still cute. 

And by the end of the evening, the old Elvis mask made an appearance. 

Hallo-week

Four days, seven events. I think we're just now recovering. So let's see, I covered event 1, the school parade. Then there was trick or treating at Daddy's office. Then another party at a friends. Saturday we had a birthday party in the morning. Andrew woke up a little warm and grouchy, but seemed fine at the party. When we got home and I lifted him out of his carseat, I could feel the heat radiating from his body. A fever of 101, so he and I took a pass on event #5, a Halloween party at my brothers.
That's all we need to say about that. Andrew and Daddy took a break from #6, a princess birthday party. Somehow I neglected to take a picture of the adult princess, who seemed to be wearing my circa 1986 prom dress.
And that brings us to Halloween itself. Elizabeth loved trick or treating with her 3 best friends in the neighborhood. It was barely possible for Rich to keep up with her. Andrew was feeling better, but mostly wanted to stick close to home. He LOVED handing out candy to trick or treaters, which surprised me. I wish I had gotten a picture of him doling out the candy with a "here ya go" to each bag.
Seven events in four days was really too much. We had fun, but by the end we were all feeling pretty frayed around the edges.
Thankfully my friend Amy came over and helped us man the fort. Our street is insane on Halloween - I bought close to $40 worth of candy, and for once we didn't run out too early. Our last piece was handed out just after 8:30. The first bag had 83 pieces, the second bag 65, the third bag was cheaper laffy taffy and other smaller candies and while there was no label it had well over 120 pieces, bag four had another 65 pieces, and by bag five I had no idea, plus I had sorted the daddy's office candy and put stuff we don't like in the hand out bin. The past two years we've basically employed a neighborhood redistribution system - sending Elizabeth out to collect more so we could hand out more. This year Elizabeth was too savvy for that, though I was able to srot through it quickly and redistribute some undersirable candy (who hands kids chocolate santas? well, I guess we did), and we still ended up with a pretty healthy supply for the next few months.

Til next year!

a preview

Still haven't taken pics off our camera, so just a preview of Halloween from my iphone. This was costume #1 for event #1. The younger grades suggested kids should dress as storybook characters and write a book report (yes, write a book report) from their character's story. So her planned Sleeping Beauty costume became Little Red Riding Hood, as we've never read the sleeping beauty story (and struck out at the library). But that's ok. She had 6 more events and I believe 2 additional costume changes to come.

And a photo sent by one of RIch's co-workers. Costume #2 from event #2 - Cinderella at Daddy's office trick or treating event. Andrew, as Elmo, had a pretty good time, though Rich reports Andrew would wander into offices and say, "I want candy." He's not subtle. And yet he's pretty darn cute, so this strategy worked well for him. The football helmet in his left hand is not an official part of his costume - Rich has a UVA helmet displayed in his office, and his office mate retaliated with a syracuse helmet. Andrew insisted on carrying it around the entire time.

They scored so much candy at daddy's office that I was able to sort through it and place any undersirable candies in our giveaway pile for the hundreds of kids we had for Halloween itself.

the princess and her chicken

What is it about 4 year old girls that makes them deeply desire to be a princess for Halloween? Whatever it is, it's ubiquitous. We went to a birthday Halloween party and the first four girls who came in were princesses. 3 cinderellas and 1 tinkerbell, who I guess is not technically a princess but it was a big poufy dress nonetheless.
And others have already covered this, but when did Halloween become a never ending holiday? When I was a kid, there was trick or treating, plus our church always had a Halloween party. And I guess we sometimes dressed up for school? This year, we went to Ren Fest the Sunday before, and E wore the princess dress. There was a small party at school and Rich's office did trick or treating. Throw in the dress up birthday party, and she'd worn the dress 4 times before Halloween night. Speaking of the big poufy dress, as I fluffed it out repeatedly and watched her swish around, and let's not forget holding it up when she went to the bathroom, suddenly I could not help but think this dress was more of a pain than her wedding dress will be someday.
But it was adorable. Andrew was pretty much befuddled by the entire experience, but still had a good time.

Name that Baby Chicken

OMG I love - LOVE - this chicken costume. So happy we could use it again.

Happy Halloween!!!

Elizabeth has become a huge fan of trick-or-treating. Probably has something to do with her complete addiction to candy and chocolate. And she hit the trifecta today. Party at Luchy's in the morning. Trick or treat at Daddy's work in the afternoon (which she's been asking about for over a week). And hitting the neighborhood at night.

Here's our little cowgirl with Mommy who decided to stick it at home and dish out the goods to the kids.


And our little cowgirl again getting ready to hit the block with Elvis.

This was one tired little girl after today. Especially walking our block.

But she learned a new trick at Daddy's office. Daddy's building has 6 floors. After the 1st two, there were only a handful of offices giving out candy. So we went to the 6th floor and worked our way down. The woman in the first office we visited went ga-ga over E's costume (the pony was a pretty big hit). E said "Trick or Treat" took her piece of candy and said "Thank You."

Then the woman says, "Would your horsey like one too?"

E's face absolutely light up. And a light bulb lit up over her head. And I'm not talking figuratively here. A friggin light bulb appeared and lit up over her little head!

"YES!!!"

We go to the next office. And the routine changes:

"Trick or Treat!"
"Oh what a cute little cowgirl. Are you a sheriff? Here you go."
"Thank you." (* pause *) "Can I have one for my horsey?"
"Oh, why sure!"
(* grin *) "Thank you!"

And that's how my little Sweetpea got double the candy at Daddy's office. I'm going to let her negotiate all of my deals from now on.

- Rich