halloween week

we are not really in to halloween or anything, but this year we had several halloween activities. i have already posted about her costume play date last saturday, then we had pumpkin carving on sunday, "trunk-or-treat" thursday night at the church, costume outing on friday morning, finished off by trick-or-treating in the neighborhood friday night. we made sure to get our money's worth out of that costume! (not that i spent much when i bought it at goodwill.)

i was pretty proud of our pumpkins. i really like to carve out something elaborate, but not scary. this year was the first time i did something without a pattern that wasn't just a generic jack-o-lantern face. this year we did bob and larry - of course. madelyn knew what i was carving as soon as i drew on the eyes and mouth and began to call out "bob" while pointing at the smaller, rounder of the two pumpkins. i even went so far as to paint them red and green and add "floating" pupils to the eye cutouts. here is a picture of them all lit up. they didn't quite look this good on friday night (larry's tooth had dried up and curled under and both of their pupils had shrived up), but i had to carve them before i flew out monday night because there wouldn't be time when I got back from kansas.

while i was gone, matt had to keep up with madelyn's social schedule and i was proud of how well he did. we had friends watch madelyn for us during the day (thanks again christina, kate, and aeron!) and matt would pick her up to go to that evening's activity. monday they went to the hardware store, tuesday night was tumbling class, and thursday was the church's "trunk-or-treat".

for those of you not familiar with a "trunk-or-treat" it is where cars are parked in the parking lot with the trunks open and decorated so that kids can go from one to the next trick or treat style. you can see from the picture which one was madelyn's favorite. if you look closely, you can see that she helped herself to one of the bob toys. matt said that she just stood there staring for the longest time. i was really disappointed that i had to miss it. i had wanted to decorate our trunk, but matt didn't think that he could handle giving out candy and watching madelyn without me so i will have to try again next year. matt said that it was a lot of fun and after a few cars madelyn stopped needing his encouragement to get her treat.

matt and madelyn picked me up at the airport at midnight on thurday (friday), so the 9:30am neighborhood playgroup outing planned for friday morning was not looking like such a great idea... but miraculously madelyn slept until 8am and we were both able to get dressed and fed in time to arrive a little after 9:30. we were meeting some neighborhood friends at a new indoor play place called "the big backyard" - it was their grand opening on thursdy and they were planning to have halloween treats on friday so we thought that we would check it out. madelyn had a really great time! she did trip on the play set pad and skin her lip shortly after we arrived, but i cleaned her up and she wanted to keep playing. she didn't even ask for a snack the whole time we were there (very unusual for her), so i knew that she was really enjoying herself. they basically have everything you might find in a really fun backyard - two play sets (the one for older kids was massive), a playhouse (the picture is from the playhouse), balls, tricycles and other ride on toys, and a selection of stationary baby/toddler toys. i am not sure that it will be a frequent stop this winter, but it is always nice to have another option. and then back home to take off her costume for a bit before trick-or-treating that night.

matt took her out trick-or-treating while i stayed home to give out candy. we had thought that she would only last a few houses, but they did most of the neighborhood. trick-or-treating has set time and date here based on where you live. ours was on halloween (some were the previous weekend) from 5 - 7:30. and the trick-or-treaters started coming at 5 on the dot. we were trying to finish dinner and then get maddie dressed up again. in my rush to get her and matt out the door i forgot to put her face paint on (a nose and whiskers) so we never got to use it in any of the times she got dressed up this year. oh well. here she is trick-or-treating. (she is knocking with a stick.)

matt rang our doorbell when they came back and instead of picking some candy from our bucket when i held it out, she pulled some out of her pumpkin and added to the bowl! reverse trick-or-treating. apparently she did the same thing at one of the neighbors, but with a lollipop matt was letting her enjoy.

not all related to halloween, here are some of madelyn's latest words: trick or treat (said "tea-t tea"), avocado, slide, daddy, and maddie.

i learned the truth about who was taking care of who while i was gone too. madelyn was eating a snack of cereal and raisins after trick-or-treating and she would take one for herself, eat it, and then bring matt one, putting it in his mouth, and then repeat. after a few trips she drank some water and must have thought that matt must be thirsty too because she came over to give him some. i am glad to know that matt has someone to make sure he eats while i am away... love.