Halloween 2011

Dear Abigail,

We always have a lot of activities going on throughout the whole month of October, but I'm pretty sure this past weekend topped the cake with the absolute most! We utilized every single minute of the weekend with one activity or another. To start, your school had a Halloween party on Friday. You got to wear your costume (Mickey Mouse, of course) to school and all day long! At the party, Mommy's camera decided to be obnoxious so I had to break out the phone camera, so I was only able to get a couple shots, but you can see it was a pretty awesome party!

All your friends looked so cute and you sat beside 2 Buzz's! And, one of your friends was an astronaut but you kept telling me he was a garbage can! You can see you had all kinds of treats to eat, and tons of energy that you were burning off. Right after the party, we walked over to Daddy's work where his office had a big trick or treating party where you went from office to office. Now, last year, if you recall, we encountered the "little boy who took your candy". So we were concerned about you remembering that, as well as your fear of costumes. Both were pretty accurate assumptions. You had to be carried, of course, and we saw the "little boy" again, but he did NOT take your candy this time. Everyone at Daddy's work was excited to see you and to meet Kate. You decided early on that candy wasn't worth walking for and Daddy took you back to his office, but Miss Karin, who works right beside Daddy decided she'd help you out. You told her you wanted your pumpkin filled to the top, and, well, that's what she did! She proceeded to go get the candy for you and bring it to Daddy's office, where you sat and played on his computer. Let me just say, you had plenty of candy and Mommy finally had to tell Miss Karin you were going to go home with her if she didn't stop giving you all that candy!! We headed back home and Ellie came over with Aunt Steph and Uncle Jaybee to eat pizza and watch the World Series AND Daddy's team won!!! The Cardinals won the World Series!! Daddy begged me to name you Pujols, but I told him it wasn't feminine enough so we decided on Abby - he loves that man. Anyway, you and Ellie played and played and played, oh and ate pizza. But, we had to get to bed early because we had to run a race the next morning! That's right, the next morning, you and Mommy got up super early and headed off to the Nashville Race for a Cure.

Your school had a team and we met up with all your teachers. You loved seeing your teachers on a Saturday and particularly Miss Megan - you were very concerned the whole time where she was. And you were SO good! Even the teachers all commented on how good you were, considering it was YOU we were talking about! Reason being, you stayed in your stroller the ENTIRE time and didn't give me any trouble at all!!! It was super cold at first, so I think that kept you in, but also there were LOTS of dogs - everywhere. So I'm pretty sure that kept you in the stroller - your little safe zone. And, you thought it was hilarious that those dogs were wearing shirts, pink shirts, too!! After the race, we headed straight home to clean up because we were meeting a college friend of Mommy's - Miss Jenny and her son Tripp (and hubbie, Mr. Roy). We met them at Chuy's and had a delicious lunch, which, for you, included a push up. Note to self - Chuy's gives a push up when you get a kid's meal!!! After lunch, we met Daddy at the new house (it's getting closer and closer to move in time!!!) and then headed to the Pumpkin Festival in downtown Franklin. Now, we were hesitant about going, because lots of folks dress up, but we decided since it was just us, and we knew where the kid zone was, that we would go and if you got scared, well, we'd leave. The gang went that morning - yes, without us, because we were trying to save lives (you know, racing for a cure and all), so we didn't have to worry about messing up their good time. It was super crowded but somehow we got a really close spot. We went to the kid zone, where we proceeded to wait in line so you could jump in the bouncy house. For some reason, the second you got in the bouncy house, you wanted me to hold you, which clearly I couldn't do because I was outside the bouncy house, but you insisted, so you had to get out of the bouncy house - in other words, we waited in line for nothing... BUT, we still had 6 more tickets to use, so we (me holding you) looked for something else and low and behold, we found horses!!! You were so excited and could NOT wait to ride a horse. And this time, Mommy couldn't go with you, but you did not care - you were ready to ride!

I'm pretty sure we're going to have to get you a pony for your next birthday! Next we found a slide, and you did not want me to hold you on it!
I'm pretty sure you weren't supposed to go down that way, but hey, it was fun! It wasn't too much longer and we had to head back to the house to get ready for yet another event!

That's right, another event! We were heading to Uncle Jaybee's first bonfire of the season!! The gang all gathered around the fire...
And ate our first smores of the season!!! You kiddos loved roasting the marshmallows except all of you complained about it being too hot!! Wonder why...

But y'all had no problem eating them...

Nor did Mommy! It wasn't too much longer and we put you kiddos to bed - it had been a LONG day. Sunday rolled around and we all slept in, but it wasn't to long before we were headed back over to Ellie's house to watch the Titans game. You girls jumped in the bouncy house and colored and even rested for a bit. After the game, we headed home but, of course, we couldn't sit still - it's just not in our nature. You and Daddy headed to the neighborhood park and I took Kate to the grocery store. Soon, Sunday night came, and we all headed to bed! Whoa - long weekend, huh. On Monday, we all slept late and you guys were even late for school/work! And it didn't stop with the weekend. When you got home from school, we had a visitor - Aunt Jill and Alexis came to visit. They were in town shopping and decided to stop by and meet Kate and give you some hugs!

I'm pretty sure you had extra candy at school or something because you were SUPER hyper, and that's saying a lot because you typically are pretty hyper. Aunt Jill called it spirited. I liked that, but I think it was just straight up hyperness!! They didn't stick around too long because we had to get ready to go trick or treating. We decided to all meet up at Ryan's house and eat dinner then hit a few houses for some treats. Again, we were unsure of your response to trick or treating, so we prepared for the worse...

Here's before..

(Yes, Kate went too!!)Walking to your first house...

And then something scared you. So guess what that means - "HOLD ME, HOLD ME HOLD ME"...

I could convince you to walk to the door once we got to the door (and by saying "you can't get candy unless you get down"), but then seconds later you were ready for me to hold you.

Unfortunately, there were a couple dogs that scared all of us and then Sponge Bob Squarepants, which I'm not a fan of in the first place, but you for sure weren't and that set you over - it was time to head back to the house...

And we did, to Ryan's that is, and you helped pass out candy, after you ate your one piece!

For some reason, you kiddos were satisfied with your one piece of candy! Ha!! We thought we'd be fighting with y'all all night! You didn't even eat all of yours - not too surprising. You and Ryan and Ellie loved watching for anyone coming to the door and then passing the candy out. You and Ryan would grab huge handfuls and put them in the kids bags together, and then Ellie would get one piece and put it in the other kid's bag! I felt bad for the kid that got Ellie's because they watched you put 5+ pieces in their friends bag!! Finally, all the candy was gone and it was time for us to head home. Here we are, you in bed, Mommy headed there soon, and hoping maybe, just maybe, tomorrow brings us a stay at home, do nothing sort of day! We may have to visit the park or something though :)

Halloween was interesting this year with you, but still very entertaining! We love you little scaredy cat!!!