Halloween was quite different this year than last. From the 1st day I put up the decorations Anabelle was already more involved than previous years. She loved playing with all the pumpkins and ghosts around the house, lining them all up on the stairs. She played with the Halloween colorforms that we had stuck to the front door window, moving the witch and bats around. She talked about our pumpkins on the front step almost daily, often saying "hi" to them out the window. It was fun to see how involved she was this year and I can already imagine how exciting next year will be for her.
When the big day came around we started off our fun by going to story time at the library. The librarian read books all about Halloween and the kids danced to songs like "5 little pumpkins", something we had been singing here at home too. After that we did some grocery shopping and headed home for lunch and a long nap- it was going to be a late night.
After nap we got our costumes on, Anabelle was excited to wear her "cow pants" and I dressed as a farmer. Soon we started getting trick or treaters coming to the door. When the doorbell would ring Anabelle would run to the door ready to hand out candy to her "friends" as she called them. Never mind the fact that she didn't actually know them, when you're 2 everyone is a friend. She would give them candy and then when they left she would cry and yell out "friends!" We went through this quite a few times, with Anabelle very upset and just not able to understand how the whole trick or treat process worked.
Soon it was time for dinner, we decided to have some special ghost pancakes, complete with raisin eyes.
Then it was finally time to go trick or treating. John had to miss out on the fun because he had his championship game for his softball league (bad scheduling!). My Mom came over to have some fun with us and help out.
Anabelle did not want any part of holding Mommy's hand, she only wanted to hold Grandma's hand. That's ok, I was busy taking pictures :)
Walking up the steps to the first house.
Picking out some yummy candy.
Anabelle did great! She really got the hang of saying trick or treat, holding open her bag, and then saying thank you. Everyone thought she was very cute and some people asked her to moo. She was very excited and seemed like she could go on much longer than we did. We just went around our block and then it got pretty dark, so we headed back. While we were gone we left out a bowl of candy for any kids that came by, and when we got back it was almost empty. Although Anabelle did manage to find an orange sucker and ripped the wrapper off with a quickness only a child has. I took this opportunity to snap a few more pictures.
After eating her sucker it was time to go inside and relax for a little bit. Some more trick or treaters came by and now Anabelle understood how it worked. She passed out the candy and said "bye-bye" as they left-no tears!
Enjoying some of her loot, M&M's!
After this we went over to Uncle Mike and Auntie Steph's place where they had some friends over. We had a good time eating and visiting. Anabelle was definitely worn out by the end of the night, so we headed home and straight to bed. It was a great day. To top it off, John and his team won their game and are the season champs! If you're gonna miss Halloween, at least you guys won :) Good Job!
Despite going to bed late Anabelle was still up at her usual 7:30, so today we had a Halloween hangover. Oh well, it was worth it, we had a great time. Already looking forward to next year :)
