Halloween 2012 Celebrations

I know I mention this quite often, but it is so much FUN celebrating the holidays when you have young children that get excited about all the associated festivities. This year, we kept in line with what we did last year, but Lyla is starting to understand a lot more what the season has to offer. 

 

Since I already took Lyla to Ardenwood Farms earlier in the month (the closest pumpkin patch), we decided to try Joan's Farm and Pumpkin Patch in Livermore.  Lyla really liked that they had a petting zoo, and the animals seemed to be attracted to Lyla (perhaps just attracted to her by the prospect that she may have food).  They had pony rides there as well, and Lyla got really excited about the idea of riding a horse.  She still occasionally mentions "Brownie", the horse she rode.  I see more trips out to a farm for the inner country girl in Lyla at some point...

This farm had a hayride, and Lyla enjoyed her first time on one, pointing out pumpkins, the tractor, and all the animals she saw along the way.  We went through their cute little Western town area, and browsed many, many pumpkins.  Lyla is so cute when she does unexpected things - she said she wanted to get a pumpkin for her and one for the baby as well.  We were happy to oblige and she picked out very proportionate sizes of pumpkins for her and her soon-to-be baby brother.

The following weekend we had a pumpkin carving activity over at Dustin's parents' house.  Dustin, Sherie, and I all carved pumpkins.  Lyla got some help with hers from Daddy - I think she just enjoyed observing what everyone else was doing.  Every time Lyla saw the finished pumpkins sitting on our front porch she would say "I see pumpkins. Good job Mommy."  I think that means she liked mine the best. :)  They sadly rotted really quickly this year with all the rain, so now every once in awhile Lyla says "What happened to pumpkins?"

The Friday before Halloween our church had a "Trunk or Treat" activity where the kids go from trunk to trunk of people's cars for candy rather than the traditional method.  The presidency I work with at church was in charge, and Dustin had responsibilities with his quorum's presidency, so Maga and Paga helped us out and made sure Lyla was taken care of that night.  She was in toddler nirvana.  Everyone was dressed up and in costume and she got lots of attention from adults for her costume.  She and her friend, Olivia, walked hand in hand around our church's gym for the costume parade - it's odd that she seems to have no fear when she has a friend close by!  Lyla grasped the concept of trick-or-treating quite quickly, and went running up to trunks with her bag opened wide for people to drop candy in.  There were some carnival-esque activities as well, and Lyla fell in love with the cake walk.  She was delirious by the time we went home, and slept VERY well that night.

On the actual night of Halloween, Lyla went out for traditional trick-or-treating.  She was really excited about her Abby Cadabby costume.  People have been asking her for weeks what she was going to dress up as for Halloween, to which she replied "Abby Dabben!" Close enough.  She also volunteered quite often along with her choice of costume that "Grammy made it".  So, thanks once again for another great Halloween costume Gram!  She'd been dying to put the costume on again ever since the Trunk-or-Treat activity, so she was relieved the time had finally come again to put her Abby costume on.  We went through Dustin's mom's neighborhood so all her neighbors could see her costume.  We hit up Dustin's Aunt Bev's house as well as his Uncle Mick and Aunt Kathy's place as well.  It's always nice when you can sneak in some family visits!

Of course, before bed we had to let Lyla sample some Halloween candy.  I don't think we could have given her anything that she didn't like!

And, as any good mom should, I promptly went through Lyla's candy stash to take out any candy that would be unsafe for Lyla to eat.  I was more than happy to take those pieces off her hands. :)

Lyla is now saying "Halloween - all over?"  I think she will quickly forget when we introduce her to the upcoming holidays!