Raising Elle, Lauren, & Ava: Halloween Week

In anticipation of Halloween, we did some pumpkin-themed activities throughout the week. Last year, I had found a tutorial online to make pumpkin-decorating kits like the ones from Pottery Barn kids (can't remember where I found it though!), and we never got the chance to use it. So, Elle and I pulled them out this year and made pirate and kitty-cat pumpkins, which Elle loved! We did some other fun learning activities, including counting practice with candy corn. Then, on family night, Kyle helped the girls carve a pumpkin, while we at pumpkin risotto and had pumpkin ice cream for dessert, which ended up all over Lauren's hair; she is such a mess!. Then we played a few games with our "pumpkin" balloons, including getting them into the basket without using our hands, racing our balloons across the room using our noses to push them, and doing a balloon waddle race. The girls loved this and did not want to go to bed. Amazing how much entertainment balloons can provide!

On Friday morning, we had our annual playgroup Halloween party, and I forgot my camera, so this is the only picture I have, but the kids did a craft and played a few fun games, including being wrapped up like mummies:

On Friday afternoon, we headed to Lexington to visit some good friends. Elle was in heaven because we got to see her best friend, Coral. Coral and her family are moving back near Seattle in December, and we will miss them, but Elle especially will be so sad to not see Coral very often. We went to an orchard with the kids after we got to Lexington, and every time we would get in the car, Elle would start talking about how Coral was her best friend ever ever ever. I again didn't have my camera, so hopefully, my friend Amy will send some pictures soon, but the girls got to go down a big slide on burlap sacks, and Elle loved it! She would try and push herself faster and faster, and it was so cute to watch her and Coral sliding together. Elle borrowed one of her friend's costumes, so here she is as Rapunzel:

The girls woke up Halloween morning asking to go trick-or-treating right away, so they were very excited by the evening. They loved being princesses and it was so cute to hear Lauren tell everyone who asked us that day that she was going to be Snow White. I had a bunny-hooded jacket for Ava, but she was a asleep most of the trick-or-treating time, so I'll have to get a picture of her some time this week. We went to a friend's house for pizza and then trick-or-treating, and the girls loved having friends to run from house to house with. I had a talk with Elle earlier in the day, and explained to her that there would be pretend scary things at the houses we would go to and that she had to be brave and walk like a big girl if she wanted to trick-or-treat, since she tends to be scared of pretty much everything. It seemed that almost every house had a dog, which is one of her biggest fears, so she did scream a few times, but overall, she did really well loved getting all the candy. Amazingly enough, none of the kids ate any candy while we were trick-or-treating, so when we got back to our friends' house, we let the girls pick out 2 pieces of candy to eat, and Elle, of course, chose the whole Twix bar (some of the house were handing out actual whole candy bars!), and Lauren ate the pieces we had given her and then walked around getting other adults to give her more candy. All in all a very fun Halloween!