Happy Halloween!

So I think we're on the hook for trick-or-treating in the future!  Melanie is figuring it out.  Next thing we know, she'll figure out where Mickey Mouse lives and learn about Chuck E. Cheese.  Hmmm....
I worked with Mel this year to teach her about the costume part of Halloween, so that she could pick her costume, and help pick Joe's.  Melanie was a ladybug and Joey was a bumblebee.  Once she finally made up her mind, she did a good job sticking to it.
The weekend started early for Melanie, as she went to Beef & Boards ("The Little Mermaid") with Gigi, Aunt Julie, and Molly.  She did all right, but got scared toward the end.  The verdict is that she was likely scared by the big, loud king who was yelling at the mermaid "Melody."  Easy mistake!  She sat out the end of the play in the lobby with Gigi, and had fun playing with them for the remainder of the day.

Saturday, Melanie & Molly went to a costume party at Gymboree.  They were both really into the activities, and had a great time playing together.  As you can tell from the photos, Mel's costume apparently got a little cumbersome for her while playing.

Sunday, we went to the "Pumpkin Path" at ZPC, where Melanie warmed up her trick-or-treating skills.  I love how Melanie is holding onto the baby carrier strap in this picture.

Then, we had to wake her up from a nap to go to the neighborhood Halloween parade.  I struggled with the decision to wake her up, but she'd been looking forward to the parade all weekend.... I think it was worth it!  She got some candy there, and then we trick-or-treated at Paula & Tom's (Paula had made special cookies!) and then went home to welcome our own trick-or-treaters.  Melanie shocked us by being completely excited about handing out candy to all the kids.  During any lull, she would announce "I want to see more kids."  Every time the doorbell rang, if she wasn't sitting on the stairs waiting for the kids, she would beeline for the door to see who was there.  It was awesome.

That's right, I didn't get a good photo of both the kids together in costume.  Maybe I'll try again this weekend.  The family picture was going to be a good one - both the kids were complying for a few minutes, but other kids kept running in front of the camera, so Mel lost interest.

Another highlight of the weekend was that both kids napped at the SAME TIME on both days.  Magical.