Halloween Part III

Tonight Ben took the girls trick-or-treating. I am glad it is his job. I stayed home with Camille- I liked my job.

We only had 13 trick-or-treaters this year. I wonder if it is because of the trick-or-treat street. Maybe we all got candied out. I don't know, but it's too bad. Especially since I have 2 1/2 bags of candy left.

Audra said that "all holidays are her favorite."  Claire said that "Christmas is her favorite because she gets presents," but that she likes Halloween, too.

Whew. That's a lot of Halloween- but it has been fun. We didn't get homework done, but I don't care. Sometimes you just gotta let kids be kids.

Pumpkin Carving

The pickings were slim for pumpkins this year, but Audra and Claire would not be deterred. Audra kept saying she had to have a round pumpkin to make a face. They were both so excited to carve pumpkins.

Ben was not.

Ben kills spiders on a daily basis for me. But when it comes to pumpkin guts, Ben wants nothing to do with it. So I was in charge.

 The girls really wanted to try to get the pumpkins cleaned out. They did not like it when I tried to help them.

 Audra's pumpkin is on the left, Claire's on the right. Audra said she wanted a "silly" pumpkin. Claire's had a million teeth. Very fun!

Halloween Part II

We went to the local trick or treat street. The kids got LOADED with candy- which was awesome for them.

Camille was especially cute- she stole the night. She didn't want to let go of her candy bin. Oh, man, she is just so cute!

 All three of our girls were Dumbo at one point. I need to pull out the other pictures with the other two as Dumbo. It really is about the cutest costume:

 Camille HAD to have one of her candies on the way home. She LOVED it.

Fall Leaves

Once again, we needed to rake leaves. The girls really got into this time- they were so excited to hep. And, admittedly, they actually DID help. I was very impressed.

Pumpkin Patch

We went to the pumpkin patch which was a lot of fun. They didn't have a ton of stuff for kids to do, and the only pumpkins they had left were moldy (was there a pumpkin shortage this year? It sure seems like it). But, we just wanted something that would only take an hour or two instead of the whole day, so it worked out well.

 Ben got photo bombed by a pretend fox:

 There was a rotted out pumpkin that acted as a cauldron. All the kids loved it:

Freaky Fall Festival

Get ready for lots and lots of pictures! Today was our first night of Halloween. What do I mean by "first" night of Halloween? It seems that Halloween can no longer last for one night in this country. Now, it lasts for over a week- with several opportunities to dress in multiple costumes. Kids these days really are lucky.

Tonight was the school party. It is our major PTA fundraiser of the year, and by the looks of it, I think we raised a lot of money! I sure hope so, we need it.

Audra has been talking for weeks about being a "poodle girl." She has no idea what a poodle girl is, just that they get to wear a cool skirt and shoes. We had gotten both of those items as hand-me-downs, and Audra was hooked.

I kept asking Claire what she wanted to be, and her answer continued to change. First, a witch. Then a bunny.

Tonight she ended up being a Cinderella.

We opted not to dress Camille up in her real costume- we'll save that for next time. But, it was not a waste because we had a cute little pumpkin outfit that was perfect.

 I let Claire wear the tiara that I wore at my wedding. It took guts on my part to trust her with it, but perhaps someday she will wear it at her wedding, and these pictures will be fun to look back on.

 For some reason, Camille LOVES to fall on the floor and lie down. She does it all the time- and she did it at the cake walk:

 It took a lot of courage, but the girls decided to hold a snake in the reptile room:

 Audra won a cake at the cake walk. She was so excited- and rightfully so. It was pretty funny- all night long she was like, "I can't believe I won! I wasn't expecting to win. I wonder if everybody else had fun, because it doesn't really matter if you win or not, but if you have fun. But I'm good at the cake walk." It was awesome.

 And when we got home Claire the Princess said, "Let them eat cake!"

I have a question for you photographers: All of a sudden my "Automatic" setting makes really blurry pictures with the slightest movement. It has never done this before. Any suggestions???

The Cutest Thing

I know most parents say this about their kids, but I am pretty certain that Camille is the cutest toddler of all time. I mean, really, she is just SO DANG CUTE!

She does this thing where if she knows she is doing something she shouldn't- like putting something into her mouth- she sneaks around the corner to look at you so you know she is up to something. Then, when you start to get up or to say something, she turns around and runs away as fast as she can.

So CUTE!

Camille LOVES chocolate chip cookies- she takes after her dad (and, well, most children). She goes over by the cookies (which are on the kitchen counter) and starts grunting and grunting (her preferred method of communication) until we give her a cookie.

I think it might be her curls that make her so adorable. Or her laugh. Or her sweet personality. Or her dance skills- she does have great dance moves (and, she's figured out how to turn the radio on herself).

Whatever it is, she is pretty dang awesome- we sure do love her!