Happy Halloween!

What?  I'm posting about a holiday on the ACTUAL holiday?  We must be in a parallel universe where I am an efficient, organized blogger.  I'm sure we will return to reality for Thanksgiving.

We had a great Halloween!  It started on Friday with Trunk or Treat at a friends' church and culminated tonight with more trick-or-treating.  After the rain on Friday, we were glad for a clear night to pull the girls around in the wagon, making occasional stops for them to hop out and go get candy.  They were not afraid to run up to the doors and hold out their pumpkins, though they were shy about saying "Trick or Treat" and usually only managed to whisper it.  I'm surprised Kate didn't say "BOO!" at every house as that has been her answer to the question "What do we say on Halloween?" for the last week or so.

Speaking of Kate - she was supposed to be a cat in a pumpkin.  What did she end up being?  A cat with a pumpkin top.  She was not all about the actual pumpkin part of the costume and would yell "NO BE PUNKIN'! if I even tried to get near her with it.  That was not a battle I chose to fight & she was still darn cute in just the cat part of her costume.

Elle was the self-proclaimed "Itsy Bitsy Spider" or "'pider" as she likes to say.

The difference between Halloween this year and last is crazy!  They were so excited this year when we talked about it.  They would say, at least 3 times a day, "Go Trick or Treat!".  To which I would respond, "We have to wait for Halloween!".  And Kate would always hold up her pointer finger and say "Wait Halloween come."  Then they would both start saying "Elle be 'pider!  Kate be cat!  Daddy be chicken!"  Yes, they wanted Daddy to be a chicken.  Sadly, that did not pan out the way they'd hoped.  All in all, big fans of Halloween, I'd say!  Makes me super excited for Christmas.  :)

Kate the Cat with a Pumpkin Top

Elle loved Kate's cat nose. 

What we get when we say "Girls!  Hold hands and smile!"

Elle, the Itsy Bitsy Spider

Trunk or Treat.  One day, we'll have lots of pictures of them looking at the camera at the same time & smiling - right??

Love this girl and her jolly self.

Love this one too.

Ready to roll.

Their first house.  Awwww.

Watching them walk around in their Halloween costumes was so stinkin' cute.

Post-Halloween candy assessment & sugar stupor

Oh Reese's Cup, I love you.

It's Cookie Time!

Tell me the name of the movie the blog title goes with and you win 7276 Dojo points!  A box of them would be so nice...

But seriously - the girls and I made cookies the other day!  We've made cookies before, but never the cut-out variety, so it was a new experiment.  I thought I'd practice in preparation for some Christmas cookie making.  Thank you $1 bin at Target, for making our "fall" cookie-making experience possible!

I'd say the girls had a great time, as they are still talking about "painting cookies."  I was a little control freakish about letting them cut them out because the concept of "gentle" is still not completely understood and cookie dough is not so forgiving to little toddler hands!  I think next time, I may make the cookies ahead of time and then just let them go crazy with the icing.  That, or take a chill pill.

Hopefully, they will remember painting leaves & turkeys & owls this fall instead of the fact that I totally forgot to get a pumpkin to carve for Halloween!!  Oops.

Kate loved pushing down on the cookie cutters.

Elle liked picking up the cookie cutters to see her creation.

Funny side note: Elle calls the legos she's holding ice cream.  Chocolate ice cream, to be exact.

In answer to your question - Yes, it is very important to wear your backpack while decorating cookies.

The finished products!

#2

Not only #2 out of the womb, but also the first to go #2.  Not to be outdone by her older-by-a-minute sister, Kate took it a step further and went poop in the potty tonight.  You go girl!  Literally.  

A smidge grosser to clean up, but we're still very proud!  And I think she is too, though she was very nonchalant about the whole thing.   She was way more excited about her previous "pooping on the carpet" escapade.  Yes, you read that correctly.  I will spare you the details, but she thought it was hilarious. 

Sidenote:  I had such positive feedback on my previous potty post (yeah, alliteration!), I'm considering making it a weekly blog feature.

No?

Okay, fine. 

Did you know...

that bees and dogs can smell fear?

This picture?  Makes me snort.  And if you don't get the above movie quote, please return to 1996 and then please click here.

One small stream for Elle....

One giant leap for potty training!  That's right folks - Elle went pee-pee in the potty for the first time tonight.  If that seems a smidge delayed, I know.  We have not been pushing it at all and the girls only just recently became interested in the past couple of weeks.  It's funny, because she actually did it while I was in the other room.  I guess in keeping with the 2 year old theme, we don't always do things when Mommy tells us to - we do them when we want to!

So, after both of them sitting on the potty for about 5 minutes after bath time, Kate was done and Elle had a conniption because she was not ready to get up.  So, Kate & I went into their room to quickly put her diaper on before she peed on the carpet.  Yes, it's happened before.  And yes, I'm sure it will happen again.  Good times.

When I went back in to get Elle - there she was!  Proudly playing in her pee-pee.  I was so proud, I decided to ignore the fact that she had pee all over her hands.  Well, kind of.  I may have told her that our hands do not go in the potty.  But only after I told her what a big girl she was and how proud I was of her.   :)

Have I sunk to a new low by blogging about my child's bathroom habits?  I like to think not, unless it becomes a trend.  I had to record it for posterity, right??

Way to go, Elle! 

PS - You know I now have to blog about it when Kate does it, so just be prepared.

Feed the Birds

One of our favorite days of the week around here is Friday.  For obvious reasons (hello, weekend with Daddy!), and also because we have dubbed it "Field Trip Friday."  Each Friday, schedules permitting, we go on a fun outing with our friends Jessica & Campbell.   Currently, we are alternating the Zoo & Aquarium and this past Friday was Zoo day. 

We had lots of fun, though all three of us were exhausted afterwards!  There's a parakeet house there we hadn't been in before and you can buy little sticks with bird seed on it to feed the parakeets while inside.  Thanks, Jessica, for treating us to our first sticks!  Totally worth the $1, as the girls loved it.  Another fellow toddler mommy & her little girl were there with us and snapped these cute pics of the girls.

I tried to refrain from singing the song from Mary Poppins while we fed them.  It was hard, but I managed.

Pig-In-the-Box

As promised, here is video of Kate & Elle loving the new "Olivia-In-The-Box" that Daddy picked out for them.  My favorite part?  Elle saying "Daddy funny".  Also, as a bonus - listen closely and you can hear me snort-laugh.  You're welcome.  

Back to smelling the delicious ribs that Tyler's smoking on the Egg today.  A nice end to a fun weekend!