Happy Halloween!

We carved the pumpkins earlier this week. One of them is my style and the other is more typical of Dan. Can anyone guess? (Hint: this is actually a trick question).

On Halloween morning, Livia wore her special bib, which was part of her birthday gift from Abby. It was a great way to start the day.

I took Livia to the Museum of Life and Science. It had nothing to do with Halloween, but there's not much going on most Friday mornings, so it seemed like a good place to go. We recently became members there-- it's a great museum with lots of cool exhibits and a mini zoo outside, but Livia's favorite part is the baby play area. She especially loves the tunnel and slide.

Halloween eve was very non-eventful for Livia. She started getting really really tired around 6:15 pm. We tried to take her to our next door neighbors' house, but they weren't home yet. So Livia went to bed just before 7pm and didn't even see any trick-or-treaters. Cassidy, on the other hand, saw all 120 trick-or-treaters that came to our house. Cassidy dressed up as a dog with devil ears and a vampire cape. Her cape actually looked just like the one that Alexey wore.

Here Cassidy is enjoying her special Halloween treat.

Livia did wear the costume briefly before going to bed. The only thing she wanted to do in it was to chew on a spoon from her kitchen set.

I tried to get a photo of Livia and Cassidy together but this was the best I could do.

Dan and I always argue about getting enough food (for Halloween and also for parties, etc). I insist we have enough, Dan worries that we don't, and usually we compromise and get a little more and end up with way too much. This year I was insistent that the 6 bags of candy and 50 frosty certificates would be enough. Our first trick-or-treaters came at 7pm, but we literally had 100 people come over the next 40 minutes. Dan raced to get more candy as we were running low, and I literally ran out of candy and shut the lights for a few minutes. Then he got back with 5 more bags, and we only had about another 20 kids come over the next 45 minutes. I will admit that I was wrong this year-- oh well. But we still ended up with lots of leftover candy that I didn't want around, as usual. This is what everyone saw as they came to the door. I was waiting on the steps, and I stepped outside to hand out the candy so that Cassidy wouldn't jump on anyone and Livia wouldn't wake up. Cassidy only made 1 little girl scream. All the kids liked Cassidy's costume. Livia slept through the entire thing.

Yesterday we went to my friend Sherri's house for the Horizon baby/toddler Halloween party. There are 5 people in my 20-person office who had babies in 2007, so there are lots of kids around the same age as Livia (ranging from 10-18 months). Unfortunately my camera ran out of memory so I could only get a couple of shots. Livia did wear her cow costume and I dressed up as milk. We all had a great time and Sherri, Mark, and Caitlyn were wonderful hosts as always. Here we have the Taylor family (Kevin, Melanie, and Malachi the dragon).

And here is Mellisa with Maya the duck

And the answer to the pumpkin carving question (if anyone really cares) is that Dan actually did both of them, but the simple face is definitely much more my style, as I would never have the patience to research pumpkin designs, print out a pattern, and spend 2 hours (with some frustration and swearing) trying to get it just right. But I have to say that it's the most beautiful musical pumpkin that I have ever seen.