Happy Halloween

We hope everyone had a fun Halloween.  At three-years old Halloween took on a whole new level for Annika.  She loved walking with her friends door-to-door, loved the cute Halloween decorations (not the scary ones), and especially loved dressing-up.  This year she was Fancy Nancy.  For those who don't know who she is, Nancy is a children's book character who loves everything fancy -- fancy words, fancy clothes, fancy everything.  Fancy Nancy stories are one of Annika's favorites, so she was very excited to be her for Halloween.  Gavin was our baby bjorn (bear).  He looked adorable.  Unfortunately, every time I thought of taking a picture of him he was upset.  So, he is our grumpy bear.  

Andy had the day off since he was out of town all week so we were able to start the festivities early in the day.  Pumpkin carving was our first item on our to-do list.  Annika chose the moon and star, Andy did the salamandor, and I did the "Boo!".  Gavin's had exploded the day before (didn't know they did that).  Of course Annika didn't want anything to do with touching the goop inside the pumpkins, nor the tracing, or the carving.  But she was great at cheering me on and complimenting me on the carving.  Next, we made pumpkin balls for the trunk-or-treat.  Yummy!  Again, Annika didn't want to touch the goop, but excited to eat one and compliment me on how good they tasted.  Next on our list was dinner-- mummy hot dogs.  They were delicious.  We cut strips of biscuit dough and wrapped them around a hot do with mustard eyes.  And, you may wonder, Annika didn't want to help, but you guessed it, loved eating them.  We then headed out and enjoyed a trunk-or-treat and door-to-door trick-or-treating with friends.  Gavin loved hanging out with his Dad in the Baby Bjorn and eating his hat.  Annika didn't exactly get what to say when the door opened, but was sure to say thank you when the candy hit the bucket.  After trick-or-treating, we came home and Annika finished helping Daddy pass out the candy.  When the doorbell rang, she went running to open it.  Sometimes so excited that she forgot to bring the candy with her.  Passing out the candy took 5 minutes because Annika had the find the right one for each trick-or-treater.  At 8 p.m. we turned off the lights and had to wash Annika's plastered hair before bed.  It's now over and a huge bucket full of candy sits on top of my fridge calling my name.  Hmmm, I think I will have a kitkat.