Zoo Boo and Trunk or Treating

Every year the Pittsburgh Zoo hosts a Zoo Boo where the kids can walk around and trick or treat while seeing the animals. Due to the ever growing popularity they do it the two weekends before Halloween. I heard from several friends who went the first weekend that it was INSANE!!!

I was nervous to go, but so glad that I did because it wasn't too bad. Sure it was crowded, but no worse than when a couple of field trips show up a the same time. 

Here is my little Raggedy Anne!

 Notice how her little doll matches PERFECTLY?

That is because this is the same costume and doll that my Mom made for me when I was a little girl. 

Everything but the wig... I made that bad boy!

Poor Abby, she got totally gypped. I hardly have any cute pictures of her in her little costume. 

The little stinker moves around so fast all I have is a red dotted blur in most pictures. Oh well! 

 The HUGE pumpkin weighing in at 1211 lbs!

We bumped into one of Sarah's favorite little buddies and walked along with them the whole time. 

It was way more fun having friends to walk along with. 

I thought this picture was funny. Kind of looks like they are doing model poses. 

Watch out Tyra, here are your next contestants on ANTM!

 "Ah! Scary Dinosaur!"

They had all kinds of fun characters walking around. Like the dogs from the Bob Evans restaurant chain (Biscuit & Gravy), a giant giraffe and monkey (from the Art school), and even...

 A SHARK!

Sarah loves running up and giving them hugs. 

We really need to get this girl to Disney World or something!

Under one of the huge pavilions they had music blasting and the kids just ran around and danced. It was very cute. Sarah has never been a big dancer, but she actually did a little bit!

She couldn't keep her wig on, so Abby rocked out in it for a bit. 

I was pretty much spent at this point, so we decide to head for the gate. 

We made one last stop at the Haunted House (that was done by Sarah's gymnastics company)

 It was a very cute, kid-friendly, not-so-spooky haunted house. 

They had all kinds of moving things, including "Jaws"

 Sarah didn't want to leave, but we had to hurry home and get some chili made for the trunk or treat. 

Our ward is so awesome. We have THE best Activities Chair and Committee!

They did an awesome job with the Halloween Party and I really wish that I would have taken pictures of it! Darn it! But I do have lots and lots of fun memories of it. 

We were a little late getting there because it took longer for my make-shift chili to heat through. Plus, Abby was sleeping and we waited until the last possible second to wake her. 

Here is Sarah, touched up and ready to go!

Oh! I love those big brown eyes!

Abby didn't even get in her costume until we arrived at the church. The trunk or treating had already begun so I didn't even get to take any pictures of them. I was manning the trunk and Ryan took them around. They had fun though. 

It was an awesome Halloween!

The girls didn't go Trick or Treating on the real Halloween Night, but some friends in the ward invited us and a couple of other families over for dinner and games. It was a blast! We really need to do that more often. I love being social! 

We still bought candy to pass out to any Trick or Treaters in the neighborhood, but we got home so late from out little get together that we missed them all. Which is BAD NEWS, because now I have a huge, very tempting bowl of candy calling my name constantly. 

So, if any of you want to come Trick or Treating at my house tomorrow... 

or the next day... come on over! We have plenty.

Hope everyone had a very

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

PS - The most fun thing about Sarah's costume was how old school it was. I think I can safely say that Sarah was the only Raggedy Anne costume this year. I could hear parents constantly around me commenting "Look there's Raggedy Anne", and how cute she looked. If there was a vintage Halloween Costume contest, we totally would have had it in the bag. 

It sure did make Sarah feel special having so many people tell her how darling she looked. 

Every girl needs that self esteem boost!

Halloween Happenings

One of the sisters that I visit had a guest pass to the 'Halloween Happenings' that Phipps Conservatory held this year and invited me and the girls to tag along. 

It was so much fun. 

I was way excited that she asked me to go and super impressed with all the fun activities.

It gave me a chance to finally dress Sarah up as a Pirate!

 "Argh" 

 Sarah LOVED hanging out with bigger kids. 

They had stations all around the gardens where you could color a bracelet, get your face painted, color a picture, make a pumpkin book mark, etc. 

You even could go outside in the children's garden and mini golf.

 It was a bit cold, but they still had lots of fun!

The COOLEST part had to be the MAGIC SHOW that they had!

Here are the kiddos excited for it to start. 

They had a huge spread of goodies and treats for the kids to snack on. They were really strict about the snacks being only for the kids (which I didn't care) but as we were leaving they were begging everyone to take more (of course we just wanted to high tail it out of there, so they got stuck with it all, bwah hahaha). 

Anyway, back to the Magician. He was very cute with the kids. He had several of them go up to help him with his tricks and had the entire audience giggling frequently. At the very end, right before his last trick and before he asked for a helper, Sarah stood up and began hoping up and down with her hand up. He asked her what she wanted and she said "Um, just to help you?" So he let her help him with his last trick. 

He gave her a little wand and asked her to wave it over the cage, while the audience yelled the magic word, "Bingo." This was supposed to make the vicious beast appear.

But it didn't.  

So he gave her a bigger wand. 

and a bigger wand...

and a bigger wand!

Until he handed her a wand that was like SIX FEET long!

(She may or may not have whacked him with it)

The gianormous wand finally did the trick and a cute little bunny appeared that only Sarah got to pet.

So special for my little animal lover. 

She even got her own magic wand for being his helper. 

For our last little stop we got to go and plant an 'Eyeball Plant'.

Yes, that is seriously the name. 

 ...and, um, if I don't kill the little thing, I'll take a picture of the bloom that is supposed to look like an eyeball. 

It was such a fun night (even if the kids were beyond cranky on the way out the door). 

Thank you, thank  you Jess for letting me tag along with your fun little family. I LOVED it!

Can't wait to go again with you again at Christmas time!

Little Story: Okay, so the only costume I had for Abby was her little Ladybug one, and I didn't want her getting it all goo-ed up at this event, so I put a cute little 'Trick or Treat' onsie on her and a Halloween-ish bow in her hair and called it good. It was funny though. I swear I caught a lot of glimpses from other moms that were like "Ahem, and why is you other daughter not dressed up?" Funny, funny! People make me laugh. HA! I still thought she was adorable... and a lot more comfortable than shoved in an oversized bunny costume or dragging on the floor princess dress. Hehehe!

I love people!

Happy Halloween

A few days early...

This was the best shot I could get (out of a hundred or so). I'll take it!

It was down right painful getting Abby to sit down for a picture. 

Even when I put a pumpkin between her legs to keep her there for longer than five seconds. 

I did get a couple of cute ones of Sarah

 And a total cheeser of the three of us. 

This last "candid" one is my favorite. 

Hope everyone has a spookily night!

PS - thanks again mom, they looked adorable!

Preschool Halloween Party

Let me start with a little story. 

Every time someone asks Sarah what she wants to be for Halloween, she quickly responds, "A Pirate." Cute, I'd love for her to be a pirate... but, I'm making her be Raggedy Anne, because it is the same costume that I wore when I was her age. Well, I hadn't finished making her wig (the old crepe paper one got trashed) and needed to improvise for her little preschool party on Tuesday. I rummaged up a Fairy Princess costume that she got for Christmas last year and asked her if she would be okay with that. All was fine and she went to bed excited for her party the next morning. Well, that night, while I was getting everything set up for the preschool party I came across a bag of costumes that I got from freecycle last fall. And what costume do you think was inside? A Pirate costume, two actually... must have been twins. 

So in the morning I laid the two options before her. Fairy Princess... or Pirate. 

Much to my surprise, she chose to be a Fairy Princess. 

Want to know what changed her mind? 

The shoes. 

She loved feeling so big wearing these cheap plastic heels (that were extremely loud clomping around). 

I thought she looked beautiful. 

Crooked wings and all. 

It was a very fun party. I definitely enjoyed it and I think the kiddos did too! 

Here are a couple of pictures from it. 

(Click to enlarge)

I did face painting at the beginning. 

The kids colored pictures to decorate their way oversized bags. 

 

Lunch time, complete with Mummy Dogs, Goblin Smiles and Lady Fingers! Yum!

Pumpkin Mask Table

 

Foam Craft

Pin the Grin on the Jack-o-lantern

 

Making Spider Hands

The kiddos in action. 

 

 

Making Ghost Pops

 

It was really cute, after each kid finished their ghost pop they would fly it around the house Ooo-ing rather spookily. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have 8 kids in preschool, but two had to leave before we got our little group shot!

Thanks ladies for all of your help, and letting me be a crazy activity planner. 

It was fun, and I appreciated all of the warmth, love and laughter in my home.

PS - I was a bad photographer and had a lot of lighting issues. Sorry! I didn't get good shots of all of the kiddos (or any of some).  I'll be better at the next one!

Fall Photos

On Sunday we went to Schenley Park with our friends to snap a couple of fall shots. 

Unfortunately, Sundays are crazy busy, so by the time we both got up there the light was pretty much gone. We still had fun, Sarah most of all!

On the way up the trail an older couple pointed out a hawk to us. It was so close!

 Very cool!

 Can I just say how much I LOVE this park!

 It is one of my favorite places to go running, because in the morning the lighting makes it glow!

Here's our little family.

Abby looks thrilled.  

I really like this one except for the fact that I'm not looking at the camera, grrr! (we had two cameras going) 

 Poser!

Sweet lil' Abby.

Sarah was too busy playing with sticks with her friend to take anymore pictures.

Although I wish I had snapped a couple of her wearing her styling shades... we were lucky to get them off of her to snap a couple of family pictures. 

Thanks Tiffany and Steve for taking pictures with us.