Halloween 2010

I've said it before, but our Halloween, with our little three year old (which was her 4th Halloween) was the BEST by far! I think three must be a magic age! You can see her little eyes just sparkling with new, fun things like this. And then you can see Mommy and Daddy's eyes sparkling too! (Well, Mommy's might be tears, but that's neither here nor there!)

We all gathered at Amber's house for trick-or-treating. Out of our little group of friends, she has all the family in town, so with events like this, we typically gather at her house. Plus, she's just a great hostess! We had yummy chili, and everyone but me had yummy drinks. (Gotta tell ya, to endure Halloween, one needs to not be pregnant. I had morning sickness, reflux, and couldn't enjoy any of the adult fun!)

When we got there, Addie was naturally being shy. She's not a big fan of costumes to begin with (unless it's a princess, then she's good to go), plus, there were some faces she hadn't seen in a while (lots of grandparents, aunts, etc. - none of which were hers, bless her heart!), so she was hesitant, which is totally her nature. (And yes, after Halloween, it was even more of a reminder that we did the right thing postponing our Disney trip!)

 Then she warmed up at least a bit for a picture. Here we go: Addie as Snow White, William as a fireman (who goes with baby jack as the Dalmation), Avery (in the stroller) as a bumblebee (and as you can see, we are VERY glad Avery was born! Addie is so outnumbered!), and her brother Hudson as the big, orange dinosaur (whose costume was too little, and therefore, bless his heart, a source of many jokes that night!), and then Cody as Woody. Precious, these children. All born three months apart. How cool!

 Our little Snow White (who if she had dark hair, would probably look just like her with that fair skin!)

 Then the trick-or-treating began! What would we ever have done without a wagon? It's way better than a stroller. Tommy and I are thinking of getting another one!

 Look at Addie go up there all by herself! I was FLOORED! And a bit hesitant. I didn't like it not one little bit, but Tommy was in charge of the camera, and I was with the wagon, and Addie was fast! So, we got our act together for the rest of the houses -this was the first one.

 Love that this guy dressed up! Way to get into it!

 And our sweet little family of three, soon to be four!

 My girl, good gracious, not much more in this world makes me happier!

 And afterwards (and I know that was a lot of pictures, but we really didn't go to that many houses - didn't need overload this year, plus it was a Sunday night!)... AK was pooped!

 but pooped, with a jaw full of candy! My girl has her mama's sweet tooth! Mmmmm!

Jack-O-Lanterns

We never miss an opportunity to have a little get together up here, and man, do I love it.

We got together with our friends Amber and Mikey to carve our pumpkins this year. We had good food, fun friends to talk to, and all the right pumpkin carving tools! It was great!

Here's Amber, yes, she's always that animated! 

 And here's our girl, loving the beginning of it, but then she got bored when we wouldn't let her play with the knives,

 and when we had her touch the inside of the pumkins!

 William, still sporting his face painting from preschool that day!

 And Tommy's final creations - a witch (Addie's choice - funny since she's so scared of them!) And the tiger paw. (that we do every year!)

 And all of our creations, along with Amber's decor. Love it! What a fun night!

Brookwood's Fall Festival

The day after Addie's trick-or-treating at preschool was their Fall Festival. Now let me start here by saying the day Tommy, Addie, and I visited this school, they were setting up for their Winter Wonderland. It was PRECIOUS and I was immediately in love. I loved how they had volunteers and I loved how they had so many cute ideas. This Fall Festival was no disappointment.

They needed parent volunteers for the portion each class was responsible for. Addie's class was responsible for face painting. My friend Amber, whose son William is in Addie's class, and several other moms I've gotten to know all volunteered. Well, Addie would NOT let me out of her sight to do what I signed up to do! I felt awful. Marybeth, Addie's teacher that she adores, just took her from me, thinking she'd get it together, which she did not. Marybeth had to come get me and I proceeded to walk around to the different stations with Addie and her class for the rest of the time, which I secretly liked better anyway! I was so thankful to be able to spend this time with Addie! I would typically not even question it and take off for every single event that was going on, but this year, being pregnant, I'm having to watch my days closely. Luckily, I was able to do this without taking time off because of another thing I'm doing with work! Yay!

Below are pictures from our fun day:

Addie doing the cookie walk. The picture is awful because she was sitting so close to me that I couldn't move!

 (All the kids were supposed to wear orange shirts - not a problem in Greenville (Clemson!) or for us!)

William:

 Notice everyone's face is painted but AK's. She would have nothing to do with it. Never does. She has gotten two tiger paws in her life and cried through one of them and loved the other (because the girl had purple paint!) Geez! Addie's cute little friend OK:

 Perhaps the kids' favorite part was the (makeshift) pumpkin patch. Addie's school has a huge front lawn and volunteers had thrown pumpkins of all sizes out on it for the kids to run and play in, and then pick one to decorate.

 Decorating her pumpkin:

 While the kids were decorating, they had a photographer there to take their pictures with this little backdrop. These were mine that I took over her head. I am sure hers were better, and now I've forgotten who she is or how to get them!

 Here they were singing songs while waiting and using the restroom. Marybeth forgot some of the lines and who helped her out? Addie, naturally. My girl sings ALL the time!

Trick or Treat at Preschool

Addie's precious preschool had a trick-or-treating for the students there. Addie wanted to be Snow White for Halloween. She actually wanted to be a mermaid that we found in the Chasing Fireflies catalog that was not only $100+ for the costume, but also a bit too grown-up for me. I gladly accepted Snow White and only sniffled a little at my long-gone days of her being a sweet piggy and strawberry!

The above two pictures were taken that morning, probably around 6:30. My girl is NOT a morning person. I have no idea where she gets that from!

Tommy met Addie's class at her school to go trick or treating with her. I was SO glad because they had two Halloween/Fall Festival events and I couldn't take off of work to go to both, with the new baby coming. I absolutely hated not being there though. Hated it. Below are pics of my sweet girl and her cute class on a fun day!

Addie and her class - yep, she's the princess out front. I doubt my child will ever blend into a crowd! Addie's closest little friends are Scooby Doo or the moose from Backyardigans - I'm not sure, we don't watch taht show (OK), the ladybug (L), and the two bumblebees (B and K).

 Tommy said she just rushed right up to the first person and grabbed, so I was horrified, naturally. Then he told me they all did it, and that made me feel a little better. Then he told me after he talked with her, she started to wait her turn like my good girl, and I felt a lot better!

 Addie was so excited to get this little sticker book of princess stickers!

Checking out her goods:

I think she had fun! She told me she did! She loved it this year, and Tommy and I actually enjoyed it too! I can't believe it was her fourth Halloween!