Trick or Treat

I have always loved Halloween.  I have fond memories as a kid of getting dressed up and going trick or treating.  It's one night I'm excited to experience with Gigi.

For her first Halloween, I knew what she would be as soon as I found out I was pregnant.  When my sister Jean was little, my mom dressed her up as a pumpkin.  I always remember how stinking cute I thought she was.  What do you think?  Wasn't she a cutie?

So, I knew that little Gigi would be a pumpkin.  I found a good costume from Pottery Barn Kids and I bought it when they were running a 20% off sale and on top of that, I had a 15% off coupon!  Score!

Adam and I debated on what we should be to coordinate with her outfit and decided on being scarecrows.  She handled everything really well.  Especially considering we had makeup on all night - she didn't even seem to notice.

We spent the afternoon at a birthday party for our friend Gabby.  There were about 8 toddler aged kids running around in costumes all afternoon.  Now I know what I have to look forward to.  We then went trick or treating with all the kids.  Gigi made it about 20 minutes and then was done with it.  I think she enjoyed the night and I'm already thinking about what she'll be next year.

Pumpkin Patching

There's a pumpkin patch in Phoenix that I've always heard about but never went to.  Luckily, this year, Adam's company put together a family day at the Schneff Farms Pumpkin Patch so we got to take Gigi.

Unfortunately, it was over 90 degrees yesterday so we weren't able to bundle up and pretend like it was fall.  We had to change Gigi out of the outfit I had originally picked for her because it was far too warm.  I love Phoenix and the warm weather but there is a point when I'd like it to get down into the 70s for awhile.  It'd be nice to be able to wear a long sleeved shirt.

We did the obligitory pumpkin patch pictures with Gigi.  Unfortunately, she had no smiles for us and she was enthralled with the hay so we didn't get any really great pictures.

Hay, hay, hay - looks so yummy

Take the picture so I can get back to the hay

The pumpkin farm had a ton of other stuff to do and will be a great place to take Gigi when she gets a little bit older.  There were a number of family friendly rides, a petting zoo, putt putt, hayrides (though they were Zombie hayrides), and a corn maze.  All of this was only $17.  I can't wait for her to get a little bigger - it'll be a ton of fun.

We took a stab at the corn maze but it's very large and we got a little lost so we eventually turned back and tried to find our way out.  It would be super spooky at night though.

Once the sun went down, Adam's company had arranged for a private bon fire were we get to cook our own hot dogs and do some S'mores.

Little Gigi normally goes to bed around 7:30 and every other time we've tried to stay out past her bedtime, she has a serious meltdown.  We decided to risk it last night since the farm was only 25 min from the house.  We came prepared with a bottle (I'm not super comfortable breastfeeding in public) and we had the carrier for if she fell asleep.  She ended up doing really well.  She took a quick cat nap at about 6:00 and then she was able to hang out with us until we left at about 8:30.  She fell asleep in the car and then quickly fell back to sleep when we got home.  Win!

Halloween in Oz Part 2

I had my Australian Halloween party this weekend.  Apparently, the folks putting on the party were a bit concerned that they had an American coming to the party so they really wanted to do everything up.  And they did a great job.  They had all kind of decorations and they even rented a bunch of B-Horror movies to show on the TV.  At one point they had "Nightmare on My Street" by Fresh Prince playing (though I'm not sure if that was on purpose or not).  They also carved their first pumpkin for the event.  So there was a bit of a competition between my pumpkin and theirs throughout the evening.  It was interesting overhearing the commentary.  I didn't get a picture of their pumpkin for comparison but I was very impressed with Cai's very sharp and clean edge cuts.

I was very impressed b/c Australian pumpkins are very thick.  I'd say the shell was probably around two inches thick.  That made it very had to do any circular cuts.  There were also a ton of seeds but the inside wasn't too terribly messy.  Here's a picture of my pumpkin.  What do you think?

Our costumes for the party didn't turn out as well as I would have liked.  The costume I ordered was a bit short (you could see my bum) and a bit tight.  Had I been going to a party where I knew everyone, I probably would have worn the outfit and just taking the crap I would have been given.  But since this was a party where I knew about 4 people, I decided it was inappropriate and had to quickly throw something else together.  We're having a 1920's themed Christmas party for work this year and when I was in the states in October, I bought a few props to go with my outfit.  I used those with a dress I already had and did a very lame version of a flapper.

We took along our friend MayDay who also had to throw together a last minute costume.  We went to the one costume shop in the city to try and find something but when we saw that the costumes averaged about $150, we quickly decided to come up with something else.  MayDay, in his cleverness, decided he'd go as a cricketer.  He was planning on buying the Aussie jersey for the Ashes anyway, so we did that and bought a cricket bat and some shin pads and he was ready to go.  I suspect that the Aussie's at the party thought he was a bit lame but I thought it was pretty clever for an American to go as a cricketer.

Everyone at the party got into the spirit and wore costumes.  Most of them were thrown together and included fake blood but there were a few good ones.  One of my good friends, Boris, bought a Captain America costume (clever since he's an Aussie).  He ended up winning the costume contest.  I have pictures of Captain America on my camera but I'll have to load them up later.  In the meantime, here are some pictures of me, HA, and MayDay.