Halloween 2011

   We had so much fun for Halloween this year!  Festivities started last weekend as we went to the pumpkin patch.  We have been trying to go to a pumpkin patch in Petaluma, CA for the last few years.  But due to traffic, rain, etc we have not been able to make it and ended up just getting pumpkins from the grocery store.  This year, someone told  us about a pumpkin patch right here in SF!  What an awesome little treasure.  It was a great setup and even had (FREE) parking!  As we got out they had little "patches" of pumpkins.  And Moira was in awe of all the little, orange "balls" and kids surrounding her.  They even had a "hayride" through the parking lot.  We had so much fun!!!  We'll definitely go back there again.  Here are some of our favorite pictures:

Then on the Thursday before Halloween, we went to our friends house, The Arellano's, to have dinner and carve/paint pumpkins.  Moira LOVED painting pumpkins.  She even tasted it and ended up looking like Hitler or Charlie Chaplin!  Classic!  We've had an owl theme going since Moira' first birthday and Halloween has followed in the footsteps.  We found a template and went with it!  The night got late but it was fun to be surrounded by friends, food and babies!  (We made a garlic explosion french bread to have with dinner and it was awesome.)  Here are some of our favorite pics:

Finally, today (Oct 31) I took the kids over to school to visit Ken's class and join them in the annual Costume Parade at Zion.  Moira LOVED seeing the other costumes and kids.  She loved being a part of the festivities.  She just basks in the spotlight and whoooo doesn't like a cute little owl.  I found the idea to make owl costumes online and so the owl theme continues.  In the evening, our church (Zion) hosted a trunk or treat.  It is when families from the church and school fill the parking lot and open their trunks in which to distribute candy.  We had fun decorating our trunk and passing out candy.  And Moira loved getting treats.  She had a ritual in which she got candy.  First she would go up to a trunk, take a piece of candy OUT of her bucket and try to hand it to the person handing out the candy.(She's the most generous trick-or-treater!)  I would put the candy back in the bucket and encourage her to hold out her bucket.  She'd then take a new piece of candy and finally she would sit in front of the trunk and sort through her bucket.  For each trunk we visited the ritual took about 3 minutes (which gave me time to talk too!).  But I said it was good we were only going to walk around the parking lot.  It took forever for her little legs to walk around.  And she was happy with the little amount she got. And Ken and I don't mind helping her eat it at all!  Here are a few of our favorite pictures from the night:

  So one more story about this Halloween.  I made the kids' costumes.  We bought simple brown pants for the legs and they will be able to wear those for as long as they fit.  We also bought simple shirts and used old t-shits from Ken's or my dresser to cut the many leaves.  After hours of cutting out feathers, I finally was able to put them all together.  What I DIDN'T account for was that all the glue to glue on the feathers would restrict the stretch which was needed to even get the kids IN the shirts.  Finally we contorted Moira's arms into the shirt.  As for Isaac, we had to cut his entire one side of his shirt to even get him into it.  I bought a 3 month shirt for his costume not even thinking that he's a gigantic boy.  Needless to say, I had to cut Moira's shirt to get her out of it.  Oh well, it was cute while it lasted.  

Hope you enjoyed this first blog and Happy Halloween!
Love,
Jalynn