A couple of trickers

Ellie was pretty excited about Halloween this year. A couple months ago she started piling blankets into a box, telling me she was packing all her clothes up (playing "moving" I guess). The she told me she needed to put a star on top for a "decorape." Once she pronounced it complete, she exclaimed, "Happy Halloween!" She has a funny concept of holidays, but it motivates her. Even today I was able to get her to finish all her "pumpkin" peanut butter triangles and "turkey" applesauce (gross, I know, but it works). She was so ready to "go to Halloween" about three weeks ago. 

Last weekend we got to go back for a quick, whirlwind trip to see family and take Ellie to the temple open house. So we had a cousin costume party. Ellie was done with the hat by the time we gathered everyone for the picture.

So we tried it on Charlie. He doesn't love hats either.

Halloween day was pretty good. We actually had great weather (a week ago we had a pile of snow, so not bad!) it was around 60 degrees when we left for trick-or-treating. Didn't even have to cover up the costumes with coats! 

Charlie was tired and clingy all day and wouldn't let me draw the Charlie Brown curl on his forehead again. But he was a pretty good sport.

Ellie was pretty happy with her costume. When I went to get her from her little preschool party, she was barefoot (in her "feet shoes," as she would say) sans hat and chaps. The moms in charge told me it all gradually came off one piece at a time throughout playtime. Guess Ellie has a thing or two to learn about being a cowgirl. When she saw Charlie's costume she thought she was going to be Linus (she's a huge Peanuts fan, both of the food and the cartoon). It took some bribing to get her to wear this costume the first time. Next year, I think I'm not going to get so invested in costumes. Something that just goes on, zips up, has a hood, that I don't have to make. Done.

 Ellie showed Charlie on her dollhouse how to ring the doorbell and say "trick-or-treat." It was pretty cute.

So excited to get out there.

Probably the best shot I got of Charlie's costume. This kid does not hold still, so everything is always a blur.

Also, note for next year: probably do a costume that is a little more generic. Sure, she looked just like Jesse from Toy Story, but all the really old people in our neighborhood (and we have a number of old timers) had no idea who that is. Plus, if the braid was behind Ellie's head, they couldn't tell she was a girl. Do you know how many, "Oh, a cowboy!" comments we got? Finally, my little girl has hair and she's still getting called a boy!

But look who we did run into while trick-or-treating. Ellie was really excited to see Buzz and Woody (no idea who they really are). She cried when they left.

She actually cried more than once last night (she wanted Daddy to carry her, she wanted to ring the doorbell, no one was home at that house, time to go home for Charlie's bedtime, etc.) It was kind of a rough, emotional, but so fun at times night. Once she got home and settled, she was happy again and loved opening the door for the kids coming to our house. She wouldn't give them the candy, but she would listen and open the door sometimes before they had a chance to knock, saying, "Another tricker! Look! More trickers came!" She was just telling me about the trickers coming to her house. So all in all, a pretty successful (but glad it's over) Halloween. On to birthday season.