Happy Halloween 2011

Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined what Halloween would be like this year.  It was simply amazing!  The girls soaked in every minute of it and so did mommy and daddy.  Several months ago I had decided that the girls would be butterflies for Halloween. They really like them, the point them out and they see them at school (it happens to be the school's mascot).  What I didn't take into account was the fact that they could dress up for school.  So I had to brainstorm what they could wear to school, because we were going to go trick or treating for the first time, so they need the butterfly costumes to be in working order :-).

I decided to take an orange dress that they had (it's actually their thanksgiving dress from last year) and make a jack-o-lantern/pumpkin on the orange side.  The girls are also really into pumpkins right now so I thought that would be a perfect fit.

Here the girls are on Halloween morning before school.

Lily checking out her pumpkin

Happy Pumpkins

I also got some adorable videos of them saying "happy halloween and trick or treat."

They had a Halloween party at school and mommy was able to go.  It was the first school party that I have been to.  It was so cute to see all the little kids eating and dancing .  The girls sat at different tables so getting a group picture what not happening.

After school we went home and let the girls run around the yard so they could burn off some that the sugar they had consumed at the party and they we got ready for Halloween Part 2, aka, Trick or Treating.

We were going trick or treating with my best friend in the whole wide world Toni and her daughter Jennifer.  Jennifer is 10 months older than the girls and it is so great when they get together.

The butterflies are ready to go

I got some more adorable videos, including practicing trick or treating with daddy.

Once we got to Toni's we took some mommy and girls pictures.

 And then we were off.

We brought the wagon, so we could pull the girls and they could run up to the houses, it worked out really well.

We went up to our first house,  but no-one was home.  We were afraid that we were too early, but it was close to 630.  We knew that Peggy was home so we went over to her house next.  The was the girls "first" official trick or treating house.

The three musketeers went up to the house not really knowing what to expect, it went ok, but not great. They all just kinda stood there, and then Peggy gave them some candy and it got a little better.

We did a mini impromptu photo shoot while we were there and the pictures are adorable.

One house down, more to go.  It was about the third house that the girls really got the hang of this whole thing.  This is where something magical happened, witnessing your child experiencing something for the first time and understanding what was going on.  Now I know that these are not long-term memories, but to see the joy in their faces is something we will never forget. To witness the "older" friend waiting for her "younger" friends and the three of them running off to to the door, laughing and smiling the whole way...PRICELESS.

They would get to the door, Jennifer usually in the lead saying "lets get to the door" the girls following behind.  They would stand in a three-by-three line in front of the door, waiting for one of us to knock on the door, (they were knocking themselves by the end), saying trick-or-treat until the people opened the door.  They would all say thank you (with a little prompting) after they were given candy, and just like on the way up, the three would run back...fairy wings bouncing as they ran.  This is an image I will never forget.

What an amazing Halloween, I can't wait for next year!!!!

The Painted Pony

This past Sunday was "Fun Day Sunday" at The Painted Pony in Monticello, Florida.  Auntie peggy found a link to it online and passed it my way.  It looked like a lot of fun.  Daddy wanted to get some stuff done around the house so I kidnapped auntie peggy with us (it really was not that hard to convince her to come :-).  We drove to Monticello, shortly after naptime. The first thing the girls saw were the horses in the pasture and started squealing at the top of their lungs.  They then kept saying "horsey...horsey...horsey".  We then made our way through the "horse" pasture and tried to avoid the piles :-)

The first thing we did was go on a hayride.  It was the girls first hayride and they loved it.

Horse says Lily

Classic Emma look!

HORSEY!

After the hayride we went to look at the different animals.  First stop was to visit the mini horse and the baby donkey whose name was Lilly.  It was a little surprising to see how the girls reacted to the animals and not what I thought would happen.  Emma went right up and started patting the horse and Lily decided to stay back and watch from a distance.

If I keep my hand behind my back then I won't have to touch them.

Emma and Lilly the donkey almost got very close.

Emma was fascinated that Lilly the donkey was eating the grass and she encouraged her to continue doing so.

At this point Lily decided, that maybe it's not so bad to pet the donkey and she jumped right in!

After petting the mini horse and baby donkey we went to go see the "painted" horses.

We were really excited to find out that we could paint one of the horses' ourselves.

getting the paint on our hands

Emma's handprint's

Lily's turn with the paint

Emma and Lily's hand-print's are the blue and yellow ones

After we cleaned our hands we went over to the pumpkin decorating table and decorated some mini pumpkins.  Lily decided that she wanted to go back and see the mini horse and baby donkey again.

 

hi horsey

Then we saw chickens, geese, bunny's and a pig oh my.

Next the girls found the swings and Emma was in heaven.  She would have stayed on the swing all day.

 

After the swing we had a mini photo shoot.  We usually do when auntie peggy brings her camera.

Here are my two favorite ones

We headed out and took one last hayride

We thanked the tractor driver and touched the tractor.  The tractor driver asked if the girls wanted to "drive" the tractor, so up we went.

It was a great afternoon and we will definitely go to The Painted Pony again.