H-A-double L-O-W-double E-N spells Halloween!

This has been a fun Halloween for our family -- the first year we've actually dressed up, and the first year Caitlyn is old enough to enjoy it.
Last week Caitllyn and I went with a friend and her little boy to the Burke Nursery Fall Festival and Pumpkin Playground. I wasn't sure how much of it she would be able to enjoy, but thought it would be fun to take her anyway. To my surprise, she had a total blast! She would not let me hold her hand because she just wanted to run from the slides to the merri-go-rounds and on to the tunnel through the ghost's mouth and then to the hay ride and from there to the animal petting zoo. I knew she'd like to see the animals but I didn't realize she was already grown up enough to go down the slides and other playground things. It was really eye-opening for me to realize that maybe I underestimate what Caitlyn is capable of doing because I think of her as my little baby still and I just want to protect her and help her all the time. I thought about that a lot afterward because I think that's going to be an important lesson for me to remember her whole life.
Anyway, I wish I had gotten more pictures of her on the playground, but I was too busy trying to keep up with her! I was seriously exhausted by the time we got home! I did get these pictures though -- she thought it was really fun to stick her head through the hole. Doesn't she look so super happy? She was beaming like that the whole time we were there!






Then last night was our ward Trunk-or-Treat. I found a practically-brand-new little butterfly costume for Caitlyn at a children's consignment sale for $2 (wahoo!), so I went as a flower garden and Quinn as a butterfly catcher.




Ok, so my flower garden turned out a little lame, but hey, at least we dressed up! The net I made for Quinn didn't turn out TOO bad! And anyway, we were just supporting cast to Caitlyn and she was adorable so it was all good.

Caitlyn's favorite part was definitely the trunk-or-treating at the end. She loves walking around with my purses on her arm, so she felt right at home with her little jack-o-lantern bucket, walking from car to car, picking out some candy, and putting it in her bucket.




The only tricky part was that she seemed to understand that this was candy and candy is yummy. So after she started putting it in her mouth, wrapper and all, we finally gave her some little pieces of some Trader Joe's chocolate someone had handed out and then I hid the rest after we put her to bed. I think she'll forget about it as long as it stays out of sight, but I'm not sure it will be that easy next year.... I know some of you are probably thinking what an uptight meanie I am, but I know what it's like to be addicted to sugar and I'm just trying to save Caitlyn from a similar fate by holding off on it for as long as possible while her taste preferences are developing. After that I won't make a big deal of it, and hopefully she will just enjoy it in moderation. Unless sugar addiction is genetic, in which case we may have a problem. For now I'll just enjoy the fact that her favorite foods are kale and broccoli. And I'm actually not kidding.