Happy Halloween - Yesterday

I had two goals for Halloween this year: go to a pumpkin patch and have Clara's costume done early. We never went to a pumpkin patch and I started working on her costume at about 5:00pm on Friday (yes, the 31st). So much for setting goals... but we did have a fun Halloween.

In lieu of carving a pumpkin, I let Clara paint one. Sometimes it is so fun just to watch her and see what she'll do with crafts. She kept touching the paint and was so upset it was on her hand. She told me she was done, but really she just wanted to wash her hands.
After I got Clara's costume ready (she's a bat if you can't tell from the pictures), we went to my mom's for the party they have across the street every Halloween. It's fun seeing people from my old Ward. We had planned to go to that then head back to our house/neighborhood. The little bat doing her "trick" and the little bat flying down the sidewalk (I don't know if you can see her wings because it's so dark, but she was flapping as she ran down the sidewalk). Clara loved running up and down the sidewalk. She's fast and she just goes and goes. She holds her arms with her elbows bent at a 90* angle when she runs fast and it's pretty darn cute. The funniest was when she started running, heard some scary noises playing at the neighbor's, turned around super fast and started running back with a really uneasy look on her face.
Lily wanted to take Clara around the block, so I let her. They were gone for at least an hour so I started getting a tad worried. Jason drove around looking for them and never found them. He was driving real slow, by himself and staring at all the kids trying to find them. He said all the parents probably thought he was a sicko. Probably.

Lily and Clara eventually came back, just in time to do a little trick-or-treating and candy eating with Lucy and Elsa. PS They are Chinese gymnasts. And they're 16 in case you're wondering. My mom gave them each a little pack of gummy Lifesavers for the picture and each of them stared at the camera as they shoved them in, one by one.

Then Elsa left a few of her's on the ground to go see the trick-or-treaters at the door. I told Clara to put it back as she bit into it. So she did. She threw it right back on the ground where she found it. So obedient in her own special little way.

We ended up staying at my parent's because we had too much fun hanging out. Then a tiger came and ate the poor little bat. The tiger was scared and was being completely stiff and wouldn't move her head, especially after Grandma put her in front of the mirror. Then she warmed up to her new outfit. Lucy chased the tiger outside, touched the tiger's face with one little finger and exclaimed, "Clara!" (in her little 2-year old way). Guess who's pregnant??

Ryan is afraid of the camera. Poor Ryan.

I feel like I was kind of 'unfestive' this year, but I had a busy and stressful day Friday, which means the week leading up to it was busy and stressful too. But it was for a good reason and I'm hoping to have some order back in my life relatively soon. More on the later...