Halloween Time 2012

Halloween is my favorite holiday! Part of what I love so much is the fact that I can celebrate it for the entire month of October. I also love the traditions that have been established since Alissa was born. These traditions include the Neighborhood Trunk or Treat Party that we attend each year with Grandma and Grandpa D. This year, that Trunk or Treat party was on October 26, 2012. Since mommy had the day off work, Alissa got dressed in her costume early and mommy spent an hour curling her hair while she watched the movie Snow White (yes, she chose the movie).  Once our princess was ready, she was so beautiful that mommy had to take pictures of her on the beautiful fall day. Of course, Alissa needed to blow her bubbles too since that is a fun thing to do on a beautiful day.

Snow White

Getting ready to blow bubbles

Blowing Bubbles

After having fun outside with mommy taking pics and blowing bubbles, we drove to the trunk or treat party where we met Grandma and Grandpa D, Daddy, Heber, Rose, and their parents. 

Alissa as Snow White, Heber as Superman, and Rose as Supergirl...

Daddy as Dopey Dwarf, Alissa as Snow White, and Mommy as Grumpy Dwarf

After the party, we drove to Grandma and Grandpa's house to pick up a special surprise that they got for Alissa. She is such a lucky girl to have grandparents that loves her so much.

 She got a princess castle to go with her beautiful Snow White costume. She also got some PJ's, a sticker book, a puzzle, a Winnie the Pooh wash mitt, a dart gun, and a bucket with candy...

Grandma, Alissa, and Grandpa

 Halloween day was on Wednesday this year so mommy took the day off work to spend with Alissa. Mommy's work has a Halloween potluck each year so she decided to bring Alissa. When we got there, Alissa was extremely excited to see her friend Lily. Alissa had recently seen Lily at Black Island Farms for the Adoptiversary of Lily's older sister, Julia. Lily and Alissa had so much fun together. 

Lily and Alissa Trick or Treating around the office

Alissa, Mommy, and Lily

posing and being silly with Lily for the camera

Snow White and Dopey Dwarf

After the party, Alissa and mommy met daddy at Grandpa and Grandma S.'s house and we went trick or treating in grandpa's neighborhood.

Snow White and Dopey Dwarf

Meggan made this shirt. Isn't it cute? Meggan and Jeremy also announced the sex of their baby by decorating this cute pumpkin.

Can you see the hidden message?

 Here is the future daddy with Alissa and Mako

Satoko, Mako, and Jason were Gnome's. Satoko is so creative. She made the hats out of felt and the beards out of cotton balls that she unrolled.

Even Grandma S. dressed up this year! :)

Dopey, Snow White, and Grumpy

Black Island Farms 10-21-12

 

Alissa and I went to Black Island Farms on October 21st to celebrate the one year anniversary of my friend's adoption. Julia was adopted from the Ukraine 1 year ago. She is now seven years old and is a very happy child.

Julia is the beautiful little girl wearing the black shirt that says, "I was born to shine." This is a picture of Julia with her family enjoying the farm. Julia's great grandpa, I believe, owns the farm. It has been in her Daddy's family for a long time.

This creative family created everything on the farm to include the slides, the swings, the tunnels, the corn box, the instruments, the ghost house, etc. Alissa had a blast. She kept saying, "Mommy, we need to bring daddy to the farm." or "Mommy, I want to do this again."

 

 

 This is the Pumpkin Bouncy house that Alissa did twice. She LOVED it.

 

This clever contraption is the Corn Cannon. You put cobbs of corn inside and when they release the air compressor, you push a button and the cobb shoots out of the cannon. If you hit a target, you win a free pumpkin. We didn't hit any targets, but Alissa got to shoot three cobbs and she had a blast.

This is Alissa and I in the corn maze. Alissa found some corn stocks that she decided to use as Light Saber's. As Daddy would say, "She is part Jedi and part princess."

The last thing we did at the farm was go on a Hay Ride. In this picture, Alissa is waiting on a bail of hay to get onto the Hay Ride.

This is Alissa and I on the hay ride. It was so much fun.

The tractor took us to the middle of a pumpkin patch and everyone got off the tractor to pick a pumpkin. Alissa and I chose small pumpkins since Mommy knew she would end up carrying them both to the car by herself. We had so much fun.

Alissa's First Day of Gymnastics 2012

 I enrolled Alissa in a Gymnastics class at the Little Gym. She will attend class every Friday at 11:15 a.m. Since mommy is off work on Friday's, I thought this would be a fun activity to enjoy with Alissa.

This man is the owner of the gym. He is teaching Alissa how to vault...

Alissa loves doing front summersaults. She is good at them too.

Alissa enjoyed the bars too...

Walking on the beam and looking at mommy

Playing on the rings

"Touch my hands with your feet" says the teacher

A beam exercise on the floor...

Costumes and Pumpkins 2012

Halloween is my favorite holiday. I get more excited about Halloween than I do Christmas. I usually spend the entire month of October and even some of September getting excited about this holiday. This year, my excitement started in August when my little family went to Disneyland and purchased a Snow White Dress for my daughter. Since then, our lives have revolved around Snow White. After arriving home from Disneyland, we started to look for fun accessories that would make these costume even more special on Halloween. Since then, we have found sparkly Snow White shoes, white Snow White gloves, a Snow White wand, and a red Snow White headband with bow.

Because I love Halloween so much, we also spent time trying to figure out family costumes that would go well with the Snow White theme. We finally decided that Steve is going to be Dopey Dwarf and I'm going to be Grumpy Dwarf. I ordered t-shirts, hats, a beard, and ears. As the various pieces of these costumes arrived in the mail, I got more and more excited. When the Dopey ears finally arrived, I had to try the costumes on.  Here I am with both costumes on. I was particulary pleased with the hats since apparently, it's not that easy to find Dwarf hats.

Alissa and I spent the first weekend of October decorating our house for Halloween. Here are a few  pictures of us decorating the pumpkins and setting up the decorations.

Alissa was so excited about the Halloween decorations and the pumpkins that she did a little dance, see below:

Here you can see more of our Halloween decorations...