Our Little Ladybug

First Time Carving Pumpkins - An Unusually Warm Late October Day!

Jeff as Woody and Cory as Buzz Lightyear (neighbor boy friends) and

Claire as the Cutest Ladybug Around!

Beggar's Night festivities were so fun! Matt prepared heavily for the evening, and by heavy I mean he bought 90 oz. of candy...a little overboard, lol. Claire and I prepared for the evening by carving pumpkins a few days beforehand. It was in the 70s and we took advantage of the weather by carving outside. (Matt was detailing the Malibu to sell it.) We cut out the lid and dug in to the gooeyness of pumpkin innards. We had fun discovering what's in the pumpkin and collecting the seeds. I saved the seeds to roast, but Matt asked me while cleaning up that night "Are you really going to bake these?" Usually I'd insist that I would, and with the best intentions, but after laughing hysterically at a recent episode of Modern Family (myself being Cam in the kitchen making a mess and Matt being Mitchell usually cleaning up said mess), I decided I knew myself a little better and said he could go ahead and get rid of them. (Funny how I've been more aware since then and you can ask Matt to confirm, but in my opinion have done a BETTER...not perfect...job of cleaning up after cooking!)

On Halloween Eve, Claire had the option of being a ladybug or a giraffe. After much deliberation (she's indecisive...I'm pretty sure it's usually a stall technique), she choose to go with the ladybug 'heute' (today) and the giraffe 'morgen' (tomorrow) at Lisa's daycare Halloween dress-up day. (Actually she ended up not being a giraffe at all because she refused to put her costume on at Lisa's.) Matt took Claire out first while I finished dinner. She barely whispered "Trick or Treat" at Joe and Jen's house and she knows them well! The other houses she wouldn't even say it...not sure why she was being so shy. Then they came home and though supper was ready, Matt encouraged me to take her out saying that I'd have more fun with it than him. She and I were out for probably close to an hour, and we didn't even make it to all the houses around the block! Claire made out like a bandit with the candy. We ended up coming home early because A. Mami was tired of carrying my 20 lb. sack of sugar; B. Dinner had been ready for a long time; and C. Claire's bucket was full! (She's still working on finishing it, a little bit each day...with some help!)

FYI: She now refers to her candy as "Sussigkeiten" (sweets) half of the time and as "Trick or Treat" the other half of the time. :)