Merry Halloween!

It's only appropriate that I post Halloween festivities in December, right?

The Family Pumpkin

Our plan for pumpkin carving this year was to have Cole & Annie draw one eye each, Whitney design the nose, me make the mouth, and Tyler do the carving. 

However, Cole did 2 eyes on his side as did Annie. Pretty funky looking guy, but hey, I can't complain when it only took us 15 minutes to make!

Back to reality

My first day back "on the job" alone was Friday Oct 29th. Tyler was about to start up his CHIEF rotation (Nov-Feb), so he wanted to be sure to go in a few days early to get caught up and know what to expect at the hospital on Monday Nov 1st. Anyway, that Friday the 29th was Whitney's Halloween Parade at school and Cole's preschool fieldtrip. I guess there's no better way to get thrown back in the thick of things than 2 big events like that! I was pretty proud of myself for getting Whitney to school on time, parking the car, and then walking over to the school with Shannon in the Baby Bjorn and Cole & Annie in the double stroller. 

I didn't feel too much like a walking circus... till I saw my friends from Whitney's kindergarten class that I hadn't seen in a while. They exclaimed, "Natalie, you have FOUR kids!!!" In my head I said, "You have 3... what's the big deal?!" but I'm sure I looked like a walking circus even though I didn't feel like one.

We loved cheering on Whitney during her parade around the school:

Then we met our preschool group over at a local aquarium for a tour. Cole even got to feed some fish!

After the aquarium, I went home, kicked my feet up, and called it a day. Didn't want to over-do it on my first day back on the job! ;)

Halloween

I was the lamest Halloween mom this year for 4 reasons. Whitney had been saying that she wanted to be a witch with green face paint, but I kept putting off getting her costume (strike 1). So Tyler took Whitney the night before the Halloween parade to get this purple one. Whitney was in heaven because she got her wish with the dress and her curly ringlets, but I drew the line at the face paint; we saved the green face paint for the next night...

...our Church's big Fall Carnival/Halloween Party/"Trunk or Treat." Cole's costume was pulled straight from his closet (strike 2) with the exception of the Dracula cape which was professionally made by Tyler's mom. Shannon's costume was a hand-me-down from Annie (strike 3) with a pink sleeper underneath. And Annie's costume... ugh.

For a whole month, Annie would change her costume choice daily. One day she would want to be a "striped lion", the next she'd request a giraffe, and the next she would insist on being a lizard. Again, I put off getting a costume till the week before Halloween which happened to be the week she was begging to be a "scary dragon." 

So I took her to the mall and checked Pottery Barn, The Children's Place, and a handful of other stores looking for a dragon costume. No luck. No costumes were catching her eye. We went home and I pulled out the dress-up box and told her to choose a costume (strike 4). Of course out of the dozen princess costumes that all fit her well, the only thing she wanted to be was this monkey which was a size 18-24 mo. By that point, I didn't feel like arguing with a 3 year old.

Tyler and I, as always, threw together some last minute costumes. He went as a homeless U of U grad, and since I needed a baby-friendly costume, I went as Octo-Mom. Yes, I was scraping the bottom of the toy box for some of those babies, but oh well!

Tyler gets such a kick out of that picture on the right. By then it was the end of the night and Whitney's paint was cracking off and Cole had just realized that we were in line for the cake walk instead of going outside to start the trunk or treat. Melt down time!

And it wouldn't be trunk or treat without our annual family photo:

Please note Tyler & Annie's rockin' high waters. Love it!

Sad to think that this is our last Trunk or Treat out here in Nor Cal, huh? :(