Halloween 2017–No Surprises Here!

Big surprise….this is my pumpkin…with our pumpkin

and her chosen costume…Mulan!  She even did her own make up.

Which I will say is far more subtle than the first time she did her makeup at 4yo  in 2014! 

We are Disney fans through and through as I’m sure you know so it was an easy decision of a costume and pumpkin pattern.  Secretly I’m SO thankful she’s still into a princess phase as sadly I know these days are numbered. When we found this costume at the Disney Store in the summer and she mentioned wearing it for Halloween I couldn’t say ‘yes’ fast enough!  *sign* I’m pretty sure it will be the last princess dress I buy for her.  Time passes far too quickly!

Back to last week’s activities!

Sunday afternoon we cleaned and carved our pumpkins.  Well, Hannah cleaned it

but then I kinda lost her when she got to the pumpkin guts.  She wanted nothing to do with carving and only wanted to squish and squash the pumpkin guts.  LOL – she even added sparkles to them!  Must say I’ve never thought of adding sparkles to pumpkin guts!

She’s come a looong way since this video taken in 2011 when she was 2 1/2.  Oh my heart!

Tuesday night we followed tradition and went trick-or-treating with her friends Noah, Grayson and Owen.

Upon returning home it was an adventure in sorting and recording her candy tally.  It was late but far be it from me to turn down the opportunity for some spontaneous math time!

Another Halloween is in the books and I can say with confidence that we were both happy to say goodbye to the scary decorations in the stores and welcome the beginning of the Christmas season with open arms!  We bought Christmas bows on Saturday and our home will be decorated (at least on the outside) shortly!

My Little Princess

It’s hard to tell from these cute pics that Hannah was under the weather much of this past week.   She’d been battling what we found out to be strep throat all week and the call from the doctor with the official diagnosis came in just as we were preparing to go out trick-or-treating with her friends Owen, Noah and Grayson.  We’d spent a couple of days tucked away at home awaiting the diagnosis so she was ready to head out for some fresh air…I mean, candy!

I knew she wasn’t well when she willingly missed the Halloween party at school and also took not one, but two hour-and-a-half naps on Wednesday afternoon!   Yes, she was not herself for sure!

But, by Thursday evening her fever was almost gone, and her sore throat was no longer so I bundled her up and we set out for an hour of fun!  Thankfully the rain and wind held off until almost the end of our evening.

You would think with 2 days at home we would have taken the time to carve one amazing pumpkin!  Ummm…nope!  We found this great little pumpkin decoration at Target last weekend so the total time taken to prepare our pumpkin was something in the range of 30 seconds!  Oh yes, that works just fine for us!

As we prepared at home before heading over to Ange’s place Hannah about flipped with excitement when I started to put make-up on her!  I’ve sometimes pretended when putting on my own but this was her very first experience actually wearing it and she was one excited little girl!

We layered her up well and then donned her beautiful Belle gown!

Princess Hannah with 3 handsome men!

A fun evening was had by all!  Later in the week Hannah took stock.  Phew – she cleaned up and I think she’s pretty excited about that!!

Sweet Cinderella

Hannah is all about princesses right now and by far her favourite is Cinderella.  I had borrowed a costume from a friend when we went to Disney in August and when we got home I bought her a Cinderella dress from a local Disney store.  Choosing her costume for Halloween was an easy decision this way and she’s currently saying she wants a Princess Party for her 4th birthday.  That works!

I’ll admit that Halloween is my least favourite ‘holiday’ of the year but Hannah had such fun!  It was an opportunity to spend time with friends. dress up in a costume and run from house to house where people filled her Princess pail with candy.  It’s easy to see what she had a blast!

Our fun began Tuesday evening when we were invited to a nearby village to spend time with the 2 families we’d been with at Disney in August.  The kids enjoyed cookie decorating

dry bobbing for apples and

pumpkin decorating.  Hannah is still a firm believer in ‘More is more!’  I think her pumpkin might be dry in time for next Halloween!

Halloween night we had fun with Ange and her family.  We are blessed not only to have the very best daycare provider but also to call this awesome family friends!  We had pizza for supper (along with the rest of the city I think based on the lines!) and then the kiddos couldn’t wait to get to the important business of Trick or Treating. 

In our little group we had Cinderella

an adorable little monkey

witch and

clown

What a group of cuties!!

Pre Trick or Treating excitement

A brief snippet of their trick or treating adventures.  The phrase, ‘Hannah, Wait for the boys.’ is one she heard more often than I can count.  It was a wet, cool night and my speedy princess wiped out on lawns at least 3 times but that never slowed her down.

Tonight we dumped out her candy to check out her stash.  She was in awe!  My little cutie immediately began to pull out the gum and hard candies and put them in a Mommy pile.  I also found a little package of pop rocks and gave her some.  She wasn’t too sure about them at first but soon after they were gone started checking to see if she could find more.

Now….it’s time to begin preparing for Christmas!  YAY!!!

Twick or Tweet Pwease!

Hannah had fun practicing ‘Trick or Treating’ all weekend.  Each time she found a bag, basket or container I’d feel this sweet little fist gently knocking on my leg and hear ‘Twick or Tweet pwease!’   I’d excitedly ask her to tell me about her costume and then would drop pretend candy into her container of choice.  Whenever I asked her about her costume she’d excitedly tell me she was a strawberry or, strawberry shortcake.  She found last year’s costume and said right away that she wanted to be a strawberry.  That made life easier for sure! 

This year

Last year

It’s fun to watch Hannah’s little personality constantly emerging and one thing I’ve realized lately is that once she sets her mind to something she doesn’t tend to waiver.  The week after we returned from Disney she said she wanted to have a ‘Beauty and the Beast’ birthday party when she turns 3.  It’s now 8 weeks later and she hasn’t changed her mind even once.  I know this determination will take her far in life!  (Hmmm…someday when we’re butting heads and she’s showing that determination, I’ll need to remind myself that it’s a good thing! :)

We started the night by enjoying supper with Ange and her family and she made these cute little pepper pumpkins with spaghetti in them.  What fun!

Baby Grayson wasn’t going trick our treating but he dressed for the occasion anyway.  Even though I see him every day I can’t believe how he grows and changes each week!

I don’t think he was too impressed about being left home from the fun

Hannah and Noah waiting patiently to go out.  Hannah looks none too impressed that mommy wants her to pose for pics when there is candy to be had!  Oh how I can’t wait for the day when she wants to look at the camera again and dare I hope….smile?

Pirate Owen.  Argh!

Our pumpkin collection.  Love the Disney theme we had going on here!

Let the fun begin!  It took the kids all of 2.5 houses to figure out how all this worked and they were off!  Running from house to house and even though each of them took at least 1 stumble in the dark they just brushed themselves off and kept going.

Hannah made me giggle each time the door opened.  She’d step right up into the doorway and I think had she had the option, gone right in to ensure she got as close to the candy as possible.

Last year I held Hannah’s hand and walked her up the steps to each door.  This year my independent gal happily ran up the steps to each door on her own.  *sniff*  (See my cute shoes, Auntie M?)

More than once I had to call out to Hannah to slow down as she just wanted to run from house to house to house.

I’ll admit to not being a fan of scaring kids at Halloween.  (I’m not a fan of scaring kids….or anyone, at any time.  I know….boring!)  We went to one house and upon climbing the stairs found a pretty yucky skeleton guy on the dark porch and the woman answering the door was pretty made-up too.  Unfortunately that kinda set Owen off for the rest of the night.  He was pretty much ready to go home after that but stuck with the other kiddos for the last few houses.  His daddy came and helped him at this house and then all was right in his little corner of the world.

Hannah even Trick or Treated at Ange’s place when we got back.  Baby Grayson was sleeping peacefully in the Ergo.  I guess he’d gotten over his disappointment of being left behind.

A couple of treats were enjoyed then it was time for us to head home.

We stopped at Nana and Papa’s for a quick visit then attempted to Skype with Grandma and Grandpa who are on their way to FL and then it was off to bed.  Even though Hannah had enjoyed some sweet treats, all the walking and climbing tuckered out my adorable little strawberry and she was asleep practically as soon as her head hit the pillow. 

And now, my favourite pic of the night!  Hannah and Noah sitting on the stairs for pics, waiting patiently for it to be their turn to go out and then, the doorbell rang.  I love the look on their beautiful faces as they looked to see who was at the door.

Sweet dreams my little strawberry…….

Pumpkin Guts? No Way!

Hannah`s really adventurous so I was sure she`d enjoy digging deep into the pumpkin to pull out all the slimy, gooey pumpkin guts! 

Yah….not so much!  :o)

While she napped I`d prepped the pumpkin by cutting the top off and scooping the gook off the sides and bottom but leaving it in the pumpkin.   (Thankfully in the morning I’d taken a quick look at our pumpkin in the garage as I realized that it rotted and a quick trip back to the pumpkin farm was needed to buy a replacement.  Note to self:  Next year leave pumpkin outside as the garage isn’t cold enough.  Oops!)

When she woke I she was excited to see her pumpkin on the counter and quickly ran to get the little one she`d coloured at daycare last week.  I took the top off and asked if she wanted to pull out the guts?  She took one peek, and sniff and declared that pumpkin guts are yucky!  Heh….so much for Mom’s photo op she’d planned!

She didn’t mind me digging it out and eventually tried to hold a couple of pumpkin seeds but wasn’t really into the whole cleaning out the pumpkin thing.  That was ok.

She lost interest pretty quick which in reality worked okay as I needed to carve our image.  I’m sure Hannah’s choice will come as a surprise to none of you! 

I haven’t carved a pumpkin in a number of years but it went ok.  The pic above had lots of details that I ignored but the finished  product made Hannah happy and truly that’s all that matters!

Hannah posing with her first pumpkin!  Cuteness abounds!

(I was blessed to be chosen by Lisa as a winner of one of her great photography classes intended to help people with DSLR cameras get out of the Auto mode.  Umm…yah, that was me.  I’ve had the camera for 2 1/2 years and still took 95% of my pics in auto.  I’ve only had one class and am also trying out a new lens so please ignore some of the fuzzy pics.  I love the blurry background but I’m still working on how to keep the subject as crisp and clear as I want it.  I’ll get there.  Just more practice needed!)