We cannot allow Thanksgiving to arrive without honoring Halloween! And, what a fun Halloween this year. This year, Ava is in kinder so she didn’t get to go on the annual pumpkin patch trip. However, Olivia Quinn did! And boy, was she proud to show off her pumpkin to big sister.

Costumes were fun this year. When Olivia told me in July that she was going to be a shark for Halloween, I just nodded and waited for the wind to change. Only, it didn’t. And as the months grew closer, and my little (then) 2 year old still held fast in her shark desires, I realized that I was going to need to find such a costume. Who knew that there must have been lots of like-minded 2 year olds, since Old Navy had just such an outfit this year!

Ava wanted to be a penguin, which we borrowed from a good friend over a month ago before Halloween ever arrived. She has been wearing it around on random days leading up to the legitimate day for costume wear. I drew the line when she asked if she could sleep in it.

Mia was a pumpkin, because… well, she is the third child and still has no say in anything that occurs in her life. It was given to us, she was cute in it… what more is there? I wasn’t sure that Mia would really be into Halloween this year. HA! Seriously, which part of free candy did I underestimate my 19 month old would not understand? It only took one confused trip to the neighbors’ front door, followed by realization that yelling “trick-or-treat” would net her one tasty chocolate goodness (which she promptly ate before even making it down the driveway) for her to be fully committed and on to the next house. As she looked over at me, her slightly confused, chocolate covered expression read, “This is the MOST AWESOME day E.V.E.R, and while I have no idea why you are allowing me to do this, I’m going to keep going until you wake up and stop me.”

And sweet baby Charlotte (who really deserves a post of her own on here, even though she isn’t technically one of mine)… was a soft baby green dragon who peacefully slept in some adult’s arms the entire trick-or-treating trip. If she wasn’t so damn cute I would be really mad at the fact that she has already (at 6 weeks) single handedly destroyed my notion that “my kids are totally normal and all babies are this fussy, active, busy, and demanding”. But, we’ll save that post for another day. Right now we’re talking cute kids in cute costumes.