Halloween

This year we celebrated Halloween twice - once with a "Trunk or Treat" at Josh and Lizzie's church and also on the actual holiday by trick or treating in our neighborhood. The Trunk or Treat was a lot of fun, as the girls were able to have a good time with their cousins, Xander (aka Peter Pan) and Julia (aka ladybug). Ava went as a princess (naturally) and Lily inherited last year's Halloween costume (don't tell her!), an angel. As I walked the parking lot with Ava (Elliott strolling along with Lily), I tried to teach her to say "Trick or Treat" which she did admirably, but not loud enough for anybody to hear. She quickly picked up on the scheme of things though, figuring out her bucket of candy was growing. I am pretty sure that she ate more chocolate that night than dinner.

I heard about how much Ava loved Halloween over the next few days, and each day she wanted to wear her princess dress again. I did manage to stave her off until Friday, when she wore a "new" princess dress. Our neighbor Amanda brought over her daughter Courtney's past Halloween princess dresses and Ava had a blast choosing a new costume(that's why you see her in two different costumes in the slideshow). She decided she wanted to be a "butterfly princess" and insisted on wearing the wings all day (which she had trouble maneuvering through doors, but enjoyed nonetheless).

Halloween night I took Ava out trick or treating while Elliott sat out in the front yard with Lily and passed out candy, so the neighborhood kids wouldn't have to walk up to our side door. I think all in all, ALL of us had a good time. I ended up joining Amanda's party as we walked along, and her little boy Dylan took a shine to Ava and held her hand as they went to the front doors. Ava had a good time, but got tired pretty quickly. So we went back and hung out with Elliott to pass out candy. Ava's sugar high kicked in after awhile and it was a good thing we were outside - we just let her run in circles in the front yard while kids walked past. She even started to holler out "Happy Halloween!" with zero prompting from us as people took their candy and left.

In the end we passed out all of the candy we bought, Ava still managed to come home with PLENTY, we spent some quality time with neighbors, and enjoyed some much appreciated family time ourselves. So Happy Halloween to us!