Halloween 2011

Yeah, I know, I know. Halloween is so LAST MONTH! But, things have been so busy and so crazy that I just never got around to posting about it. My wonderful husband reminded me the other day while he was chatting with me from the other side of the planet that I hadn't done anything on our blog in a long time. Sorry, babe.

So, without further ado...Halloween 2011.

This was Colton's first year of participating in our family tradition of playing in pumpkin guts. Well, maybe saying it's a family tradition is pushing it a bit, since most people do it too, but we do look forward to it each year. Clara loves it and we quickly discovered that Colton does, too!

The yearly "pumpkin guts" playtime

Clara insisted we carve happy Jack O'Lanterns. That was fine with me since happy faces are much easier to carve than scary, spooky, or unique designs. Aaron is the expert carver in the family so I enjoyed the simple task of smiling pumpkins. The whole process was also made easier thanks to the helping hands of my dear friend Krista, who was visiting us for the weekend from Michigan.



The finished products

As the big day of Trick-or-Treating drew near I was a bit uncertain how I was going to manage. We've never had two Trick-or-Treaters before and I was going to be doing it solo. Thankfully, the weather was superb, in the 60s, dry and sunny. We got all costumed up and Skyed with Grandma, Papa and Auntie Keri. Then we played in the yard for a bit because apparently in my effort to make it all go smoothly we were ready to go before anyone else was!

Roaaaarrrrr! Our cuddly little lion

Princess Belle cruising around before going out to collect her loot

When the time was right, we got out the wagon and hit the pavement. Our children are amazing! What I thought was going to be a daunting task turned into such a great experience. The only hiccup was when Colton repeatedly insisted on pulling the wagon all by himself. He did not want help. He did not want to sit in the wagon. He did not want to be carried. He did not want to walk all by himself. He wanted to pull the wagon from our neighbor's house all the way to the end of our cul-de-sac. That's quite a long ways for two little legs and one big wagon. So, with Clara walking ahead, she was on a mission to collect candy (duh!), I stood back and smiled as I watched Colton very slowly, yet effectively, pull that big red wagon. It was so cute and one of my fondest memories of the evening. He eventually got tired and decided he would be more comfortable if he was sitting in the wagon. Clara was eager to say "trick-or-treat" at each door, such a big difference from just last year when she shied away from everyone and made Daddy do all the work. Colton chimed in with "tank dou" and "bye", that's Colton-ese for "thank you" and we "oohed" and "aahhed" at all the costumes. More important that the candy we collected are the memories I collected of my happy, adorable and spectacular, growing babies.