Dorothy and Elmo, Halloween 2012

Yesterday was a fun and exhausting day!

I'm finding that the more holidays I celebrate with little ones, the more I find myself completely wiped out at the end of the day. When you see the joy on your kid's faces, it makes every penny spent and minute planning worth it!

This year the weather was beautiful and unusually warm. Typically a Halloween in Colorado means snow and bundling the kids up so much that their costumes are covered up by coats and hats. Due to the nice weather, we got some fun outdoor shots.

Ethan's costume was a no brainer this year. Over recent weeks he has become obsessed with Elmo. I mean OBSESSED! He requests to watch ONLY Elmo movies, anytime he finds an Elmo book he'll bring it to me or Caleb and plop down on our laps to read it to him, and he can spot the smallest Elmo face on anything-even in a large, crowded store. When he spots Elmo, his face instantly lights up and he points exclaiming "Elmo!" So, naturally, Ethan HAD to be Elmo this year.

Once his costume came in the mail, he carried it around all week hugging it like a stuffed animal. When he was upset he would find his Elmo costume and snuggle it. Too funny.

It's really hard to get a good photo of your 19 month old son in constant motion. This was the best photo of Ethan I got only because Caleb was holding him. Ha!

Then there was Elliana's costume. I kind of laughed to myself when I realized that Elmo's pet fish is named Dorothy. Ellie was not Dorothy the fish. She was Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. Ellie has only seen the movie once or twice so I was surprised when she got attached to the idea of being Dorothy. I even tried to make other suggestions, but once she heard the idea of being Dorothy, she did not want to be anything else. I think she was most excited for me to braid her hair, something I don't do often. :)

I wanted so badly to get a good sibling shot of Ellie and Ethan next to each other, but no such luck. Again, Ethan's need to never stop moving didn't help.

This was the best one I got of my 2 kiddos:

After getting dressed up in the afternoon, we packed up the kids and headed to the Fall Festival at a nearby large church. This is the church that Caleb's school is attached to. We'd never been to the festival before and we heard it was quite the party for little ones.

We asked Jon and Jenn to join us with their 4 littles and I'm SO glad they did! We got some great cousin shots outside before heading in.

Here's the 4 oldest cousins. Aren't they adorable?!? We have Devyn as a 50's girl, Ellie as Dorothy, Hudson as a cowboy and Reagan as Tinkerbell. Ethan and Ashlynn weren't in the mood to take pictures.

Once we got inside the festival, we were amazed at how large and crowded it was! I swear, the church must have rented out every bounce castle and inflatable slide within 30 miles! There was SO much for the 4 older cousins to do that it was hard to decide where to start.

Unfortunately, these 2 little ones were just a bit too young to enjoy much of the activities. :( At least they had each other. :)

 

After spending an overwhelming hour at the festival, we went back to our house to host dinner for my parents, Caleb's parents, and Jeremy and Courtney. Jon and Jenn went home to have dinner and Trick or Treat with their neighbors, kind of a tradition. At our house we enjoyed 2 different kids of hot soup, rolls, and apple dumplings for dessert. Yum yum!

Of course Jeremy and Courtney were instructed to bring their dog Willow to play Toto to complete Ellie's costume. Ever since they got Willow, I've been saying she would make the perfect Toto and I finally had the chance to prove it. ;)

During dinner we got a few Trick or Treaters. We've never been home on Halloween before (we've always been with Jon and Jenn at their house) and it was really fun to see how many Trick or Treaters we got. We didn't expect very many since we're always saying we live in an old neighborhood and don't see very many kids around. To our surprise, we had quite a few.

After dinner we quickly took the kids in the wagon to Trick or Treat at just a few homes. We had a great time but it got pretty late quickly and after about 10 homes went back home to put the kids to bed.

I swear, the holidays just become more and more fun every year with our two sweet babes to keep us smiling and seeing life through their eyes.

I hope you had a fun and safe Halloween too!