Nov 4, 2010 - Happy Halloween!

Go Illini!!!

Riley and her friends Claire and Matteus

Lights!

The kids were very entertained by the juggler

Riley and Mommy after the party

Riding the Halloween train at the pumpkin patch

Riley liked peeking through the cutouts

"Daddy I want this one!"

Getting pulled around the patch with the pumpkins by Daddy

Riley likes little pumpkins...

...and giant pumpkins

Watching the Illinois-Purdue game with fellow Illini

The game was rough for our Boilermaker hosts

Scooping out her pumpkin

Our 3 jack-o-lanterns, created after Riley's bedtime; we don't let her play with knives quite yet

She woke up the next morning to carved pumpkins, what a fun surprise!

The whole family dressed up as Illini fans for Halloween

Riley carried her pumpkin on her arm and a pom-pom in each hand

Trick-or-treating at the village; she didn't know why people kept putting things in her pumpkin but she liked it

We ran into our friend Caden

Weary trick-or-treaters

Happy with her loot

She wouldn't let go of her pumpkin and played with each piece of candy on the drive home

An Illinois football player and cheerleader

Trying to figure out the light source in the jack-o-lantern

We worked on these ghosts in the weeks leading up to Halloween. We drink a lot of milk so this was a perfect craft for us!

Hallween is exhausting!

I voted, did you?

Halloween was a very busy week. Riley loves pumpkins, so we went to several pumpkin patches to play with them before we finally went with Daddy to choose some to take home. She and Chad gutted the pumpkins and carved her little one but we saved the big carving for after Riley went to bed - too many knives and sharp objects.

Friday morning my Mother's Club had their annual Halloween parade through a local retirement center. Since it was a school day the participants were all 5 and under, so it was an adorable train of toddlers meandering their way through the halls. The residents passed out candy and little toys. It took a little while for Riley to get comfortable, there were a lot of people and kids. But she loved the orange lights and decorations and so she grew to like it. After the parade they had snacks and a juggler, what a fun party!

On Sunday afternoon the Castro Valley Village - a group of shops - had trick-or-treating and a children's concert from 1-4 pm. Again, Riley was at first overwhelmed but soon followed the crowd and liked having people put treats into her pumpkin. We only hit about half the village but her pumpkin was soon very full. As we walked back to the car I offered to carry it for her but she replied with an adamant "No! No! No!" She's never had candy but knew it was something she wanted! She never did eat any but had a lot of fun playing with it and moving it from bag to bag.

That evening we hit just a few houses on the block. She was really shy when the doors were opened but in the end we had a hard time steering her back home, she wanted to run to all the houses. We had so much fun trick-or-treating with our little girl. It brings back many memories of Halloween from when we were kids.