Happy Halloween!

Penelope Decorating Our porch

Violet on the way to the walkabout.

Penelope and Celeste downtown.

Penelope, Celeste, and Deagan getting treats.

The girls petting a hot dog.

This is Boo, one of our neighbors. She was born on Halloween.

Steve is pretty scary.

Our porch with all our pumpkins.

On Halloween morning at The Buttonwood Park Zoo.

So cute I can't stand it.

I really loved having my girls dressed as fairies  for  a couple  days in a row.

Vinny throwing candy to the kids after the show.

Violet so proud of her lollipop.

Penelope with her hoard.

This cat moved it's head every so often and Violet was at once terrified and fascinated.

Halloween night, the girls getting ready.

On the porch right before trick or treat time.

Pen was really scared to go here because it was very haunted looking.

Pen got into a fight with a stingy candy hander outer here.

Cool spider pumpkin on our neighbor's porch.

I loved this one!

I think she counted 23 of these.

Happily going through the loot.

This is what happens when you give a baby candy and let her stay up late.

Vi stirring the cauldron before picking out her animal card for the year.

Pen stirring the cauldron.

Reading Sheep Trick or Treat before bed.

Halloween was a lot of fun this year because Penelope was big enough to really get into it. She and I had the best time decorating our porch while Violet napped one afternoon. She was too cute going through the Halloween stuff in the big Halloween bin in the basement. She surprised me by pulling out a pumpkin decoration and telling me she found one that said "BOO". When I asked her how she knew what it said she told me that she knew that  B O O said BOO. I made a big deal out of it, that she had read her first word, and she was so proud and excited. She must have learned it from a Halloween book we read, I guess.

We had a great time at the walkabout downtown on Sunday. Aunt Linda and Jess and the kids came over and Penelope was so happy to have her cousins here. There were tons of kids this year, and I think maybe just as many dogs who were dressed up too. My favorite I never got a picture of, but the dog was a banana and the little girl he came with was a monkey.

We had a family pumpkin decorating party, Steve carved two, but Penelope and I used paint, glue, feathers, pom poms, pipe cleaners and glitter to make some fabulous creations. Violet was content playing with pom poms at her highchair.

On Halloween The girls and I went to the zoo for Toe Jam's Halloween party. They did spooky shadow puppets, sang Halloween songs, and threw out candy for the kids. Last year Pen only got a single lollipop and was perfectly happy with that,  but this year she was just as aggressive as all the other kids and got a bunch of candy. Violet scared me by disappearing into the crowd and then came out just fine with a lollipop clenched in her chubby fist.

After a long nap for both girls we headed out for trick or treating. Steve joined us after he got home and it was so much fun. Penelope was really into it, and she knew so many of the kids we met along the way and was excited to see their costumes. There was only one near ugly incident when Penelope went to a door and was given a single Reece's mini peanut butter cup and she asked if she could have one for her sister ( Vi was in the stroller and Pen was bringing her candy from each house to put in her little bucket, just to keep her happy)  and the woman didn't believe she had a sister. Penelope pointed Vi out and then the woman said that no, she couldn't have one for her sister because her sister was too little for candy and anyhow she didn't even have any teeth. Penelope became enraged and told the woman that her sister did too have teeth, seven of them, in fact! And she also informed her that it was her mother's job to decide what her sister could and couldn't have. Fortunately this was when Steve called to say he was home and find out where we were.

After trick or treating was done we came home and Penelope counted her candy, she ate as much as she wanted (which really wasn't much at all), chose five pieces she wanted to keep, and put the rest out for the Halloween fairy. Then we all chose our animal cards for the year, read a couple Halloween books, and went to bed. In the morning the girl's candy was gone and two cute little dogs on wheels with strings to pull them with were there instead. The girls have been playing happily with them all week.