Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween--that's we had. Paige was primed for trick or treating and did a great job of saying it and thanking people. It was a beautiful night and we didn't have to wrestle with snowsuits! Plus, the reptiles liked to cuddle earlier in the day!

Trick or Treating Practice

Today at preschool, they were in costume and went trick or treating at the courthouse. Paige has been teetering between being a dragon and a princess. Thanks to the movie, "How to Train a Dragon" she thinks they are pretty cool. I was just excited to think we may not have a princess for a 3rd year in a row. Thanks to Kim we smuggled Kyler's dragon costume out of the house and can borrow it. The problem is her son can't know we have it as he doesn't want anyone else to wear it. That's understandable, however, they go to preschool together. So Paige was a princess today to eliminate any costume drama. She wasn't any old princess though. She was a rodeo-cowgirl-princess. Belle dress, black cowboy hat with tiara, black leggings and pink boots. Kim curled her hair before they left and gave her 'big' queen hair. I am told she was so excited that she kept saying, "I just can't stop smiling!". They did well trick or treating and she came home with a bag of goodies. She has declared she will be a dragon on Halloween though. Cooper is going to be Kermit the Frog; so I guess its a green Halloween for us!

Halloween revisited

I don't know if I am getting really sentimental because my baby is getting big or what; but I spent some time tonight looking at all the pictures of her first year and just smiled. Paige sat on my lap and looked with me at the tons of little video clips of her. At this time in 2006 she was almost 7 months old and trying to scooch across the floor and jumping in her jumper.



I found these pictures which were my favorites representing Halloween. This first one was a taken while carving pumpkins at my parents and I thought it'd be fun to put her in a pumpkin. She had a ton of fun and my grandparents were there to share it with us. Plus, a bath in the sink by gramma gets the pumpkin residue off pretty well.

The first Halloween costume, and also the picture we

entered in the beautiful baby

contest. . .and WON. Obviously.

Popcorn and Pumpkins

Normally I am one of those people who carves several pumpkins and will spend a few hours getting my pumpkin to look perfect. I remember that first Halloween Cowboy and I were married, we had 4 of the most wonderful pumpkins. I had a ton of candy. . .and we got like 12 trick or treaters because the weather was awful. Now we live in the country, so we don't get any trick or treaters, but we usually still have a few pumpkins on our steps. However, we aren't even going to carve a pumpkin this year--we are just painting them. Paige and Cowboy worked on two of them the other night.

A budding artist

Her creation

Cowboy's creation. . .I didn't marry him for his artistic flair!

Tonight I made my annual batch of Halloween popcorn balls. Apparently this is a known thing I do as my good friends Jackie and Noel purchased an air popper for my bridal shower--note I still use the same popper. That's the gift receipt from October 2003 still taped to the box--I am trying to see how long I can keep the box in one piece! I always laughed at my Mom who had a few things in their original boxes that she only used a few times a year--its scary to see how that happens to yourself.



Here is my final product--I think I ended up with about 30 popcorn balls and only one really burnt finger from the lava hot marshamallows. My gramma used to make hundreds of these to give to trick or treaters--I can't imagine how much work that work be.

A lazy weekend

We enjoyed a lazy fall weekend at our house. I had to work for a few hours on Saturday morning so Gramma Shelly & Grampa Greg came over to hang out with Peanut. After I got home, we did a fun activity of assembling the Halloween house I had purchased. I was at Michaels and found this foam kit for like $3 and thought Paige would like it. Should have bought more. She did really great at listening and had a lot of fun. There weren't any instructions and most of the pieces had stickers on the back side; so right up her ally.

Immense concentration was involved.
The finished product--a wonderful display.
Today was spent cooking, playing, etc. Paige enjoys home days just as much as I do and she makes a great mess of all her toys in the living room and loves to dress up. Today it was her Easter dress over her clothes (because its cold out) and she paired it with her cowboy boots and tiara. I think it was smartly accessorized. She hides from my camera on days like today--she must have some forsight that these pictures may come back and haunt her someday!