Halloween Part II

A fun thing about raising girls is the multiple costume changes (okay, maybe not so great when I have to do the laundry, but on Halloween, it makes it a bit more fun).  For the evening of Halloween, Makaela changed out of her Ariel costume and into her Merida costume.  

The North Cappero kids

Mia was all about the lollipops

Our neighbors Elmo (Zachary) and Ryan

Trick or Treating

 There was a few adult treat or treating houses as well.  At our corner, a neighbor was passing out Crown Royal and jello shots.  Another neighbor was passing out beer.  Still another was passing out chocolate liquors.  Matt is already planning on setting up his apple cider shots next year. 

Everyone was out- it was craziness.  Our entire block (well at least those with kids) marched down the streets in a caravan.  The other blocks did the same.

Makaela and Carley

Mia and the fourth lollipop of the night.

It was a bit difficult to keep an eye on Makaela this year since she and her pack of friends ran from house to house ahead of us.  Mia enjoyed sitting in the wagon for the majority of the night eating all the candy.  She was on such a sugar high, she danced herself into the bath.  Matt and I were laughing at her bopping her head and shaking her bottom- the funniest part was there was no music on. It was great having Matt home this year for Halloween though.  He missed the last two Halloweens due to his tour in Iraq.



Halloween Part I

The girls got to dress up in their costumes for a school Halloween parade.  Unfortunately neither Matt nor I could go due to work, but I snapped a few pictures before I dropped them off.  Here is Mia looking all upset...

 And here, she is happy after she has wrenched the backpack out of Makaela's hands...now Makaela doesn't look so happy (with a good reason too).

My gladiator

We were invited to a Halloween party- appearantly the party of the year in the neighborhood and the theme this year was a Roman toga party.  At the last minute I decided to stay home with the kid because I have been working like crazy and have no desire to stay up past midnight. Matt went since he put a great deal of effort into his costume (plus, it was bound to be a great time).  I definitely got a kick out of seeing him before he left.

Yet another pumpkin patch

 While Matt went to work, I took the girls to a pumpkin patch held at a local church and met up with neighbors. We had a real tractor ride this time but the highlight was the hay piles. The kids loved playing in the hay! We were picking it out of our hair all night.

Who needs Little Tykes when you can have hay?



I even got in on the action.  The kids really enjoyed dumping hay on me.

Pumpkin "Patch"

So there are no real pumpkin patches or apple orchards in Florida and for some reason I thought that once I moved back to the mainland, I would be able to participate in all the fun fall activities...silly me forgot that Florida's tropical weather is not conducive to fall activities.  One exit away though they have a garden center that transforms into a season pumpkin patch and later in the year, a Christmas wonderland.  I was pretty surprised by how many activities they had for the kids to participate in.  The focus was more on toddler fun than pumpkins and produce though.  They had a mini "train" ride:

A makeshift superslide:

A tarped maze with corn painted on it

a petting zoo

and a mini "hayride"that circled the palm tree farm they had growing in the back

and of course, what pumpkin patch wouldn't be complete without a bounce house and slide.

The kids had a blast though and that is all that matters.  Oh and by the way, we did come home with two pumpkins :-)

Getting ready for Halloween

Halloween is a big deal around this neighborhood and since Makaela has been complaining our house isn't "spooky" enough, he headed off to the Halloween store to get some Halloween decorations.  I think he and Makaela went a little overboard, but they had lots of fun decorating the front of the house.  You can't see it in the picture, but we even have "blood lights" wrapped around our columns.  A bit too morbid for me, but when in Rome...

Dirty...Ghost?

 I have been Boo-ed! I came home from work today to find a stash of goodies on my doorstep and a note.Makaela was so excited!  It totally reminded me of the Dirty Santa's work back in Hawaii, only this is Halloween. I guess this a game that my neighborhood plays and one of my neighbors got me. So fun. I thought I would post the note too just in case some of you have a close neigbors or want to get your neighbors involved in some fun Halloween antics.