Happy Halloween!

I've always loved Halloween.  Once I stopped actively participating in the dressing up and candy binging it lost some of it's spooky magic but Ella's old enough that she's helping to bring back the Halloween spirit.  Since our "Falling" post here's some of our Halloween goings on.

Ella's first time actually carving pumpkins.  In the past we just painted them.  She has also painted three pumpkins this year.  Ella loved playing with the guts.  And she also demanded that she try the seeds.  So she did and loved them.  Even though they were not baked.  After pumpkin carving we watched the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, the Disney version with Bing Crosby narrating.  Ella was so funny.  I was worried she might be scared but she wasn't even a little.  The picture of us snuggling/hiding from the camera only happened because I was scared and needed her to protect me.  It wasn't until we watched Monster Squad a week later that she actually got scared.  Even then, she LOVED it.  

Halloween Parties!  We went in shifts.  Ella and I to my family's party.  Andrew and Ella to his family's.  Unfortunately I forgot my camera to my family's party.  But, Ella had a blast playing with cousin's and just bawled when we had to leave.  I did remember to send Andrew with the camera.  In case you can't tell, Ella is Rapunzel.  Dress made by me, including making my own pattern.  Just don't look too close.  And more difficult to discern would be Andrew, as Maximus.  Basically, we folded Ella's bunny ears to they were shorter and used some white yarn pinned to the ear headband as a mane. At my family's party I was pascal.  I wore a green shirt is all.  Pretty lame, I know.  Ella has been asking to go to Halloween parties ever since.

And Halloween itself!

Olivia actually got to wear her costume out!  Because we had a follow-up appointment at PCMC.  The costume was a hit with the nurses and Dr.'s  Only sad that Dr. McCandless (Livie's cardiologist) wasn't there to see it.  Oh well.  I finished it before Liv's surgery so she got to see a picture of it from my phone.  (More on that appointment in another post.)  Ella was SO excited to go trick-or-treating.  She was NOT happy about having to wait 'til daddy got back from work at 7.  Since we had the appt. that morning we spent the day at Andrew's parents for babysitting reasons and just trick-or-treated over there.  Andrew knows his parents neighbors better than we know ours so we were ok with that.  Andrew really wanted to show off Ella to some of his favorite people from growing up.  He is such a proud daddy.  We stayed at most of the houses for 5 minutes or so just so he could chat and brag about his miracle baby.  Luckily, we only went to 5-7 houses so it wasn't too long of a night.  Ella was a little nervous at first and instead of saying trick or treat would hide behind mommy until the candy was offered.  By the third house the shy was gone and Ella was her usual self.  She'd just walk right into their house looking for the candy.  Luckily Andrew did choose the houses that were ok with her just waltzing in.  Such a silly girl.  And in case you were wondering where Liv was for all of this, Grandma got to babysit for the first time ever.  As we were getting ready to leave Grandpa turned on Charlie Brown.  Apparently (after we left) when the Red Baron part came on Liv was entranced.  She just sat and watched the whole thing.  

I love having these special moments with my girls.  I'm so excited for these following months.  I've already made a grocery list for holiday baking and will be making our Thanksgiving menu here in the next little while.  If you think I'm jumping the gun, don't judge.  A, We're doing Thanksgiving with just us which means I will be doing all the cooking, Two, If you know me, I like doing things early to avoid stress later on, and D, I don't have anything else but to start in on the Holiday spirit, what movie does this sentence resemble?  Cyndi, I'm expecting you to answer since none of the Turley boys read this and your mother doesn't usually comment.  

So Happy Halloween!  And hooray for Thanksgiving coming up!