Happy Halloween 2009

Happy Halloween! We had a blast. The weather perfect... it was in the 60s, so everyone was out and about. We didn't have a theme for our costumes this year, but Brian and his dad, Jim, still ended up both dressing up as biker dudes! Brian was a biker dude with full arm tattoos, Jim was a biker dude with blue hair, I was Cleopatra, Peggy was an cute, quirky witch, and Larkin was the most adorable lady bug! We had some friends drop by too - the Flintstones!

Larkin went around to 4 houses this year (although she got carried to 2 of them by Papa!). Larkin's never eaten candy before so she didn't know what it was, but she still enjoyed taking it when offered. What Larkin really wanted to do, however, was to go into everyone's houses! She'd just walk right up to the door, and crawl up the step and start walking into the house. And, as a matter of fact, one time Sera walked inside a house with Larkin! Good thing they're all friends of ours!

We had a ton of kids come to the house for candy this year... I counted 185 and that doesn't include the half hour that we took Larkin around to other houses! Larkin learned that when the kids come to the house, we would give them candy. She liked that part. What she didn't like was when the kids would leave once they had their candy... it made her cry because she wanted them to stay and play!

Luck was a Larkin Ladybug tonight (and the next morning she even wanted to wear it over her pajamas too)!

Goddard Trick-or-Treating

This evening, the Goddard School held a fun trick or treat event for the kids. Larkin dressed up as a adorable ladybug. Miss Larkin the Ladybug ran from classroom to classroom playing with the different toys in the rooms, picking out candy, etc. Larkin took candy because it was offered and it was crinkly and colorful, but she's never eaten it so she had no idea what it was!

Here's a cute picture of Larkin giving her teacher, Ms. Allison, a kiss. Ms. Allison was in fun 80's attire. It makes us really happy that Larkin really likes all of her teachers.

And, finally, here is our ladybug admiring herself and her costume in the mirror in her classroom. I loved it when she flipped back the wings like she was flying!

Goddard Halloween Party

Brian and I were both able to take a little time off work to attend Larkin's school halloween party. It was great fun! The kids went on a costume parade around the school to visit the other classrooms, ate sweets, did an art project and sang songs and danced. Larkin wore her unicorn/pegasus costume again, although we took it off when it was time to eat because, as we all know, Larkin loves to eat! She ate a cupcake in no time flat and then tried to eat her friends' cupcakes too! In the group shot below, Larkin is the one on the right side wearing a bib.

After eating the sweets, it was time for her art project. Larkin glued various Halloween shapes on a paper bag. All of the kids had a blast doing their art projects. I've also included a picture of an fantastic spider that Larkin made with handprints that they had hanging in her classroom.

The party ended with the kids singing and dancing to "The Wheels on the Bus". You've got to watch the adorable video below. At one point, Larkin started showing off by spinning around in a circle and leading her spin with her arm - it was adorable! Her balance was a bit off since she had a double ear infection at the time, but she still had a blast. Then, the video ends with Larkin and her good friend, Ella, sharing a hug. It's priceless.

Deanna Rose Farm in the Fall

Since Deanna Rose Farm closes for the winter, we had to make one last trip for the year. The farm in the Fall was beautiful, and we had so much fun. It's exciting that Larkin's old enough to run around and play with everything. Here she is having fun on some springy toys and she also tried to play with some other kids in a log cabin. They were jumping around being silly and she tried to too!

Larkin checked out a bunch of animals including chickens, turkeys, cows, swans, and goats. Larkin was old enough this time to go into the goat petting zoo and pet some goats she did! Check out the cute video of her petting one after another...she even tried to kiss one lucky goat!

Halloween Pumpkin Carving Party!

We had another fantastic Hittle Halloween Pumpkin Carving Party this year! It has become an annual tradition for us, and we all have so much fun. After a fairly wet and cold October, it was actually a beautiful day for the party. We were happy that we had 23 friends and family join us, because the swine flu was raging and another 12 friends had to cancel due to H1N1. We had 9 kids and 14 adults, 1 dog and 1 bird!

Our food theme this year was pizza - yum! I made homemade dough all week in preparation for our homemade pizzas and Brian did the pizza assembling. We thought it turned out well!

And we can't forget the costumes. The kiddos wore costumes and they were all so adorable! Here are a few pictures (I couldn't pick just one!) of our little Larky-Lu dressed up as a darling unicorn/pegasus. Isn't she so cute?!

Here are some pictures I took during the party of all of the fun everyone was having. We had a kiddy table that matched the adult table and the kids liked it! We did all the usual activities... games and toys, bobbing for apples, eating, and drawing at Larkin's new art table.

Then came time for the pumpkin carving! Here's everyone hard at work and then the finished products. Pretty impressive, eh?!

And, finally, our awesome group shot of all of the kiddos in their costumes. This is one for the memory book.

It was an awesome party and we can't wait again until next year! Thanks to all of our good friends and family that came to celebrate with us - we love spending time with all of you.

Boo!