The Halloween Rundown!

I can't really think of a good intro to this post...sorry. Hey, did you know it was Halloween yesterday? :)

It was Ella's turn to be the lion this year - even though Ben initially wanted to be the lion, he ended up wanting to be the dragon again (he was the dragon last year).

Here is Ferocious Ella:


When Ben saw that Ella was getting a nose and whiskers drawn on her face (with Mommy's eyeliner!), he wanted them too:


So there you have it - a dragon with whiskers. Betcha never seen that before!

We set out around 6pm, heading down our street. As per usual, there are only a couple of houses that are giving out candy (what IS up with that????), but the kids got so much darn candy! Seriously, we went to about a dozen houses and they got all this candy:

And that was after we all had eaten some!

I know that we buy a lot of candy, JUST IN CASE this is the year that we get a whack of kids. And it was so nice out yesterday, maybe there'd be more traffic than in prior years. But no, we only had about 11 kids. Where are the good ol' days where all you saw was families walking around the neighborhood, lineups at the houses? Is it the big city? Gord says no, he remembers the same as me. Sigh.

Anyways, at every house, Ben would knock on the door, say "Trick or Treat" and then say the following (verbatim):

"My name is Ben. This is my little sister Ella. I'm dressed up as a dragon and my little sister is dressed up as a lion." And then, if they were lucky, he'd take a couple steps into their house and comment on something - "That's a nice guitar you have there." "Aw, look at the cute kitty!" He was kind of impatient between houses, 'cause the little lion was a little pokey, but she was having fun. After about an hour, Ben was asking to go home, so we gave up and went to see if we could trick Grandma, who was manning our house to give out candy to...no one, really.

Oh, Charlie was "Franken-dog":


Actually, the stitches came out earlier this week. But still...YIKES!

After arriving home from the marathon Trick or Treating:


Ella: "Cheezies? I like Cheese! I hope I don't have to share with Daddy!"
Ben: "Daddy, Ella's having Cheezies!"


And now, a little stroll down memory lane:


My gosh, they are growing up too fast.

They came, they ate, they gave her presents.

We had Ella's birthday party on Saturday - we kept it pretty small - grandparents, a great-grandma, and uncle/aunt/cousin. It was really nice! They all gave Ella such nice things for her 2nd birthday - clothes, toys, books... We all ate and had cake and played a little Rock Band. Good times!

The cake was a garden:


Lots of yummy candies!

Cousin time on the couch:


Uh...the book is upside down...


Sari is just soooooo cute!


Futile candle-blowing attempt # 102:


Time to call in the big guns:


Rabid present opening:



(Not really, it just sounds better than "long, drawn-out, get-distracted-by-shoes present opening.)

Sporting the beautiful pink feather boa from Uncle Chris, Auntie Sheri and Sari:


Who wouldn't love this face?


Sunday, we went to Assiniboine Park to enjoy the sun (but it was kinda cool/windy). We took the soccer ball to give Ben some practice for this coming Friday - his first night of soccer!






Eating strawberries...I loved Ella's fashion statement in this one...monster shirt, cap on backwards...very haute couture in the toddler circle these days...