Pre-Halloween Festivities

We had a lot of fun activities leading up to Halloween. And God gave me the biggest lesson of motherhood so far, how to let go...and I am still not learning this lesson very gracefully. I had the idea for Olive to be Buddy the Elf and I spent so much time making her costume. I bought my first ever pattern and sewed a jacket from felt and then decorated it to look like Buddy. I was so excited about it and couldn't wait to see her in it. We introduced her to the movie and she loved Buddy, so I knew she would love her costume...WRONG! She wouldn't even put it on. Pure heartbreak.
We went to our church Fall Fest and I fully expected her to wear it. After her laying in the parking lot SCREAMING "I no like it. No Buddy jacket" and me pinning her to the ground trying to force it onto her, I realized my Halloween dreams were about to be shattered. Luckily, we had thrown Ming Ming in the back of the car and Stephen got it out and she put it on no problem. And she looked adorable.

But because of my unwillingness to "let go" instead of admiring how precious she looked, I was just down right bitter that she didn't wear the "right" costume. Silly me, wasting valuable minutes worrying about something so stupid, but I still worried about it. She had a blast at the festival. The first people we ran into were her favorite friends Evan and Emma! She couldn't have been happier to see them!Then we went inside to play some fun games...

and did a little trunk or treating...She didn't understand the concept of candy going into her bucket. She would grab it out and try to eat it. She enjoyed her first Nerds (well technically this was one of the few "foods" i could eat when I was pregnant with her because everything else made me sick, but it was the first time she actually physically ate them herself.)

And she enjoyed her first sucker!

She had a great time and the proof was all over her mouth at the end of the night!

The next pre-Halloween event was her school party on Friday! We took special treats to her teachers and bat brownies for her class.
I was excited to get to see her interact with her friends. They wore their costumes to school that morning and did a parade around to all of the other classrooms. She wore her Ming Ming tights under her costume (which are a bit small and hang down really low in the middle) I sent a jean skirt for them to put on over the tights when she took her costume off. When I got there, bless her heart she was in her t-shirt and only her tights...let me tell you she looked special! Her jean skirt had gotten lost in the shuffle of the morning and stuck in her cubbie. :) She didn't care one single bit!

She had a lot of fun with her friends! Saturday afternoon, we decided it was time to carve our Jack-o-lantern. Daddy showing her the inside of the pumpkin. Eeew!

Starting to cut...Concentrating

The final product! We had so many fun things leading up to Halloween, we couldn't wait for the big day to finally arrive! (And Mommy was hoping that by some small chance she would wear her Buddy costume to trick or treat!)