Halloween Weekend

Adaline was finally old enough to partake in the Halloween festivities this year. We crammed as much as we could into the weekend and she seemed to really like it! She was beyond exhausted at the end of every evening, but she still ran to put on her costume the next night, so I think she enjoyed herself.

We started Friday night at the local farmer's market trick-or-treat event. Adaline was really leery of the whole thing until her cousins and their friends showed up- then she was completely willing to follow them around to all the booths!

Thanks for the great event, Turlock! Perfect for our little family :)

The next night we joined my sister and her kids at a local church for a Trunk-o-Treat event. So many churches in our area were putting on similar events it was really hard to decide which one we should go to. One of my friends told us that her church (a really large church) puts on a huge event; that was the one I was interested in, but it sounded a little overwhelming, so we opted for my sister and her friend's church which is much, much smaller. It was wonderful! Since the weather was so nice (78 on October 30th!), the event was mainly held outdoors and consisted of cute little game booths that were adjustable to any age- even Adaline was able to do them! She tried every one (except throwing darts at balloons...just a little to much for her) and even looked like she was having fun. Amazing since we were almost an hour past bed time! I wasn't able to take any pictures of that event because I had to help Adaline with the games, but we had fun.

Sunday afternoon we visited our local pumpkin patch to pick out a few pumpkins and take some pictures. We were successful with the pumpkins, not so much with the pictures...

 Picking out the perfect pumpkins

 obviously she takes after her Grandpa Great, the Tractor Guru

 This was the perfect spot for a few pictures...

 but she was not having any part of it.

 Trying to find her pumpkin...

 Found it!

 Helping decorate the front porch

Again...I think she had a good time!

And finally, the actual Halloween night went by much to quickly. Being that bedtime is 6:30 and it didn't get dark until about then, we did not go full on trick-or-treating like we had planned. We visited our cousins, stopped by a party we were invited to, and went to Grandma and Grandpa's house.

 Travis borrowed Trace's costume at Hayley's house

 At our second stop we realized it was a little confusing to Adaline to only trick-or-treat at friend's houses. She walked right into every house we stopped at! We'll work on that next year :)

 Hanging with the big boys :)

and waving to Grandpa who was mowing the lawn at our last stop.

It was so fun to see Adaline experience the whole thing, but I have to admit I'm a little nervous for next year when she's going to want to actually eat her candy! Happy Halloween, everyone!

Addicted

I know she's a bit young for an addiction, but I don't know how else to describe her relationship with the swing. The moment she wakes up in the morning, she asks to go outside to swing. The moment we get home in the afternoon, she asks to go outside to swing. And boy do we swing...she asks for more and more until I cringe at how high Travis can get her to go. She LOVES it!

On a side note, did you catch a glimpse of those shoes?! 

Aren't they the cutest things ever? We picked them up this summer when we were on vacation in SLO at the cutest sock store ever. The owner has recently expanded into the world of the internet, so now we get to shop from home (which I did just this morning, in fact! I'm expecting part of Adaline's Halloween costume in the mail Thursday from them.) The Sock Drawer has everything...in fact some of our Halloween decorations are from them, too. Who doesn't smile when they're looking at a sock monkey dressed as a pumpkin?

About Face...

I was never a mom that wanted my daughter to wear bows or clips and things. It's not that I didn't want her to wear them, it's that I didn't really think about it. Well, until Adaline's hair was long enough to cover her eyes. Then I tried to put clips in her hair to keep the hair aside so I could see her beautiful eyes.  Why? Not because I wanted bows or clips in her hair, but because I really didn't want to give Adaline bangs. She has this funky cowlick and all bangs do is highlight it. But I had to give her bangs because she refused to leave clips in her hair. She would pull them out, and hair would come with it. So I stopped putting clips in. I mean, really, she doesn't have that much hair to lose! 

But then...my dad came over one night to visit. He was talking to Travis about his day, when Adaline walked up and handed him a clip she found in her room. It was a cute, blue and white polka dot bow clip. He looked down, took it, and put it in his buzz cut hair, never stopping his conversation with Travis. Adaline just stared at him in wonder. He left it there for the rest of the visit and only gave it back as he was leaving. It was funny but we didn't really make a big deal of it. 

An hour later as we were getting Adaline ready for bed, she reached for the cup of clips that she likes to play with (and not wear) while we're on the changing table. This time, she picked one up, handed it to me, and said, "Help, Mama!" So I put it in her hair. She looked at it in the mirror, then grabbed another and did it again. She repeated this process until her cup was empty and her hair was full! I grabbed my camera to document it; she spent so much time looking at herself in the mirror and reaching up to touch her clips.  

Ever since that night Adaline has allowed me to put clips in her hair. She still doesn't wear them all day, but she leaves them in for much longer than before Grandpa wore her clip. I can't believe I didn't realize it before that night- why would Adaline leave clips in her hair? She had never seen anyone around here wearing clips before. Thank goodness my dad is such a playful grandpa!

Practicing...

Look at our big girl!

 As I've said before, she loves her baby dolls.

 She kisses them,

 and rocks them.

I hope all this practice pays off in April when we bring home a real live baby!

I'll Never Understand...

Tanner has a big bed outside where he sleeps most nights.
Tanner has a big bed inside where he sleeps on cold nights.
Dotti has one little bed inside that she never sleeps in.
Which bed does Tanner decide he wants?
The little itty-bitty cat bed, of course.
Look, he fits in it just fine! He even looks cozy! I mean, a dog doesn't really need to keep his tail in bed, does he?!