Halloween

Picking up where I left off, here's a bit of Halloween-ing (three weeks late).  To be fair, Ada still wears her "La-ba-ba" around the house, so we're kind of still celebrating over here.

Saturday before the holiday we had an impromptu ward primary/nursery party at the National Arboretum that was loads of fun. I admittedly scoffed at the idea of bringing non-sweet treats for the "trick-or-treating." I quickly learned, however, that they are way more awesome to a nearly-two-year old.

Ada had more fun with stickers, little toys, play doh, etc. and after actual trick-or-treating and seeing what a couple of fun-size Milky Ways did to the kid, I was grateful for wise parents who encouraged us to bring popcorn, dried fruit (yogurt covered raisins have for toddler-nirvana), clementines . . .

A reference photo, for those of you who need it.

Mike and I were invited to a Halloween bash with several couples in the ward. Everyone's costumes were amazing and I have never eaten such tasty creepy-looking food. You know the whole peeled grapes routine? It was like that but about 10 times better looking and 100 times more delicious. Mike was a little unsure about our costumes, but soon a girl walked in and said, "FRIDA!" and I felt totally justified for wanting to pull off a silly art costume.

On Halloween we had a particularly festive meal of left-over-clean-out-the-fridge stuff and then went to Eastern Market for the annual Hilloween bash. There were hay-rides pulled by big Clydesdale horses, bounce houses, face painting, balloons, and magicians. It was a bit of a mob scene, but fun to feel a part of the community. Ada got the only thing she wanted: A bright red balloon. It made me realize why parents wait in line 20 minutes for a free balloon—watching your kids light up is magic every time.

The red balloon and sharing her Halloween spoils with Lamby, Giraffey, and Sisi, her most loyal friends.

She trick-or-treated ("Kih-kee-keet!") at about a dozen houses before and after our stop by the festivities. We ended the night at a friend's house where we put kids down and had a little murder mystery dinner with the adults.

It seemed like Halloween lasted forever (oh wait, it's the middle of November and I'm reliving it again) but it was such a fun week of dressing up and watching Ada's stuffed ladybug-bum waddle around the house.