Oh-Bla-Di

Although it’s never really been “our” holiday, Halloween was big this year.  The question of who Ava would be has been a topic of discussion for months – it was a never ending, never repeating sequence of princess titles.  We ended up doing something generic out of her dress up bin and let her call it whatever she wanted.  Matt and I spent a good while talking about who we would dress up as well.  At least all the effort and though wasn’t wasted.  With all the festivities, Ava ended up wearing her costume three times!

Friday morning, Ava’s school hosted a Halloween parade.  All the kids showed up in their costumes and then marched around the hallways for the other kids to see.  Even though we don’t go to school on Fridays, Ava got to go participate in the parade.  Matt and I were there to watch, too, so that was fun for all of us.

This girl LOVES a parade.  They do them often and they really make her day!

Here’s Ava with her teachers.  She has such a good time with these ladies!

Friday night, the Hoffmans hosted a Halloween costume party at their house.  It was a really good time and, this time, we all got in on the costume action!  As I mentioned before, Matt and I have become huge Dr. Who fans lately, so we dressed as The Doctor and his companion, Rose Tyler.  Ava reprised her role as a princess and Noah dressed as a glow-in-the-dark bag o’ bones.

Right on schedule, then, we finally got around to carving our pumpkin on Saturday afternoon.  Matt drew up several pumpkin faces for Ava to choose from and she settled on a standard Jack o’ Lantern.  Can’t argue with a classic, right?

Even Noah wanted in on the pumpkin carving action!  (Funny side note, his class at school carved a pumpkin also.  His teachers said he wasn’t really interested.  Ha!)

We collected all the seeds and roasted them since Whoozers said she wanted some.  When they were done and we offered them to her, she wasn’t the least bit interested.  Go figure.

Sunday night, we got a surprise visit from the Hoffmans just as we were getting ready to go trick or treating.  It was great because we were able to get a couple of photos of all the kids and then walk our block together gathering candy.

Ava had been practicing the sequence of trick or treating events all week in her mind and, by the time we got to the third or fourth house, she finally had the knock on the door, say trick or treat, and say thank you sequence down pat.

All in all, it was a successful Halloween.  We got rid of all our candy since Matt is a generous hander-outer and are down to just the little bit Ava gathered in her adventures.  That’s a good thing, since Matt and I have had candy bars for dinner a few too many times lately.  We’re very ready to head into the Thanksgiving/birthday/anniversary season now.  November is really our month.  Can’t wait!