Halloween Celebrations...

We took advantage of the Halloween holiday to celebrate in every way possible. We carved pumpkins as Rya watched Charlie Brown's "The Great Pumpkin" for family night. Cody carved a witch in the moon, and I carved a cat. My cat was inspired by all the cats that run around the neighborhood, I figured what's one more. I am not sure what the inspiration was for Cody's choice.I thought they turned out really good, but alas they melted only a few short days later. At least they survived through Halloween.


Some friends and us went to the nearby (in Missouri) Right Choices Corn Maze. It was built on a farm, so they had a barn with a few animals and lots of activities for the kids, including slides, a hay jump, and a corn box. The kids had a blast. We started the afternoon with a short lived picnic. I say short lived because there were so many bees following us, it made us too nervous to sit down and eat. So we had our food on the go (walking around the farm). Then we headed straight for the fun! We played until we were all worn out. We lasted a couple hours and all the kids were conked out for the ride home. We finished off our adventure with a trip to the ice cream shoppe. What a fun afternoon!



And, what you all have been waiting for...Rya's first Halloween trick-or-treating. She went as a flapper, and her costume turned out well (if I don't say so myself). Many thanks to Susan Blaylock for shortening it, or it would have looked more like a evening gown with a nice long train. We made the feather headband (I felt very crafty) and polished it off with a boa. She played the part well!

Of course, plans don't always go the way you want, but it was a good time for all of us. Rya wouldn't sleep for her afternoon nap, so had it not been for her outfit she might have been mistaken for a zombie. She was in a daze for the first bit of trick-or-treating, not her normal social self, that is until Cody decided to give her a hit of sugar. After she finished her blue lollipop (I wish it had of been a different color because her mouth and dress, arms and hands, etc. were blue for the rest of the night) she was, although prehaps artificially, back to her happy self.

We took her to Cody's office. Every year they have employees bring their families trick-or-treating. So there were two gigantic floors, with rows each decorated with a different theme where the children could load their bags with goodies. Kids were walking out with so much candy my teeth were hurting. Rya loved wandering around seeing all the strange people dressed in costumes, with the exception of the few more fierce costumes that gave her a good scare (unfortunately, Scooby-Doo was on that list also). And, as long as she had a peice of candy in either hand, she wasn't terribly concerned with adding to her candy booty (she ended up with maybe a hand full of candy by the end, which is more than enough).

Cody and I ate up all the compliments on how cute she was in her little costume; that was all the sweetness we needed. But, biased as I am, I have to agree that she did look adorable. After a couple hours wandering around looking at all the people, decorations, and collecting a little candy, we headed for home. It only took Rya a couple minutes after we put her in her carseat to come down off her sugar high and before we could even get home she had crashed. She was worn from all the excitment and slept well that night, dreaming of sugar plums and such, I am sure. I would definitely say this was one of my most favorite Halloweens yet!