We got our first snow just in time for Halloween! Snow for Halloween in Anchorage is like rain for Halloween for Seattle, it has to happen so the kids' costumes get covered up. It's practically a law of nature. Olive is not quite sure what to think of the snow:
She finally found a way to tolerate being outside when there's snow on the ground. Riding on Dad's shoulders!
We had fun carving pumpkins the week before Halloween. Olive jumped right in!
About 30 seconds after I took this picture, she demanded to be let down to the floor to terrorize the cats, (her new favorite activity!) so Andy and I finished the pumpkins ourselves. Guess which two I did and guess which one Andy did.
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| Fro isn't as stupid as she looks...the baby can't reach her when she's on the table. |
We were scared the moose would run off with the pumpkins so we kept them inside...carved. We luckily got them outside before they completely liquified, but only just barely. Next year they're going on the back porch until Halloween. (oops!)
We can't remember what we did last year for Halloween, which probably means we did nothing. This year, we figured Olive might want to check out some fun stuff around town.
After her nap, we hit Trick or Treat Street in Downtown Anchorage. They had trick or treating at a bunch of local businesses and the mall. Since it's October in Alaska, we focused primarily on the mall.
Isn't she the cutest ladybug ever? She absolutely adored her costume and enjoyed wearing it to school on the 30th and then all day Saturday. A few days later, she saw it in her closet and really wanted to wear it to school, so I'd say it was a big hit. The wings are my favorite.
She really enjoyed Andy's devil horns - they light up! Nice $5 target purchase.
I wore my own $5 target purchase. Cat mask. Can't beat it. I even dressed up in all black to try to make a costume out of it. We really went all out, didn't we??
She did not really want to be carried, but it was hard to just let her loose in the mall. There were a TON of people there.
Eventually we braved the cold and went outside. We put Olive's jacket on her, but she was pretty warm in her costume and it was only in the 20s (compared to the -3 the thermometer is reading right now...brrr!) so we didn't leave it on the whole time.
We walked past the Performing Arts Center and she had fun checking herself out in the window.
Running is the best!
Eventually we made it to the festivities on 4th Avenue...just in time for the Thriller flashmob. It wasn't very well attended, but the kids knew all the moves and Olive loved watching them dance.
We checked out some blow up decor...
And then Olive decided she'd had enough.
We rushed home and I threw a batch of my infamous spinach artichoke dip together just in time for us to head to our friends' house for a halloween party! The best thing about these friends is that their son is in Olive's daycare class and so when we go to visit them, they have built in playmates and the house is pre-baby proofed. I am clinging to these friends forever! (in fact, the house behind them is currently for sale and they said if we bought they'd plow our driveway for us and help us move...VERY TEMPTING!). Their neighbors go ALL out for halloween. This picture does not adequately capture how awesomely these houses were decorated and how many millions of kids were out trick or treating.
The kids had a blast running around in their costumes and terrorizing the house...as they do.
Look at Jaxson's costume! How adorable is he?!
They preferred banging on the table together to watching the World Series...
We did a little trick or treating of our own and went to check out the neighbors' decorations firsthand (including the neighbor who was dressed as a creepy clown and popping out of the garage all night scaring people.) Their house, full of creepy decor, was right up Andy's alley.
One of the neighbors was handing out glow sticks to kids and Olive absolutely loved hers. She even wore it home in the car.
Around bedtime, Olive hit her limit and we packed it in...thankfully they live about a three minute drive from us. When we got home, we lit our pumpkins, but we don't think we ever had any trick or treaters, which was sad. Oh well...We had a terrific Halloween and hope you did, too!
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| The pumpkins are still on the porch two weeks later...they are full of teeth marks from the moose now! |
