Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!  We got super into Halloween this year, for many reasons:  First, holidays are so much more fun with a child who understands that something fun is happening; Second, Claire fell in love with "punkins", "ghostiz", and everything Halloween; Third, I knew that next year we'll have 2 kids, which will be different; and Fourth, this is the first year that I haven't been working, or moving around Halloween time, and have consequently had time to think about crafts, recipes, etc.  Anyway, it made Halloween awesome.

 October festivities at the pumpkin patch

 We were invited to "Googleween" by some friends who work there.  It was awesome, and Claire loved it.  I had just finished her costume the night before, and didn't know how she would react to wearing it.  Thankfully, she loved putting it on everytime and got so excited for her "Minnie dress".  Not to mention that I was really glad that it fit...

 Making sure that the pumpkins were on the haystack was very important work.

 So glad that Nate has a job where he can come to stuff like this!

 I'm thinking a frame for this one.

 Claire has absolutely no inhibition at petting zoos.  She loves them!  I'm glad that she hasn't had any bad experiences.

 Over the weekend, we went to my brother's house where they had their annual Halloween party.  Claire loved being with her cousins, and learned how to jump (like truly elevate!), while we were there.  Anyway, we had a great time.

 I'm putting aside the fact that my mask was broken and therefore crooked for how cute Nate and Claire look in this picture.  She sadly wouldn't wear her ears, so this is as close as I could get.  Nate was an awesome shark, and I was an owl.

 Admiring her Minnie shoes.  She loves them, but since they have heels, they're hard to walk in, so we pretty much opted for white tennis shoes most of the time.

On Halloween night, we first had friends over for dinner and pictures.  Here's Lizzie as a bear, Summer as a bee, and Justin (who wasn't as excited to sit on the couch) as a Giants player.  After dinner and playing, we went out for Trick-or-treating.  Claire LOVED it, and it only took 1 house for her to realize how awesome it was.  We started off at Willie Mays' (a retired SF Giants baseball player) house, where he gave out baseball cards, and had literal tubs of candy.  We tried to teach Claire that she just got one piece of candy at each house, but the generous people around here made that a very hard concept for her to learn.  She ended up saying, "One candy, and another candy..."  We loved taking her trick-or-treating because she was so cute, and she loved it so much.  She would say, "Trick or treat!" and sometimes "Happy Halloween!", and by the end, she would say, "Another candy, and next house!" before the door was even closed...I guess she got the idea!