Happy Birthday Party!

All the cards that arrived before the party.

Ladybug cupcakes

Ladybug cookies

Blowing out candles. I wish I'd thought to get video of this, because the stills just don't do justice to how excited she was when we were singing.

Eena let her lick the spoon, after she got done serving ice cream.

Opening gifts.

Sneak Peek

We had to cut Friday's photo session a little short, because it was windy and cold out, so we're going to get together with M again sometime next week to get some more shots of the three of us, and of Peeper alone in her "street clothes," but we were able to get some great ones of her in her Halloween costume.

M sent this preview, to "tide us over."

That Hat

First Halloween - October 31, 2008 - 4 days old

Second Halloween - October 31, 2009 - 1 year old

Third Halloween - October 30, 2010 - 2 years old

Let's review, shall we?



Trick or Treat #5 - Eena and Papa's Neighborhood

Peeper is probably thinking "So, this is my life now. I put on a ladybug dress and people give me candy and other cool stuff. Being two is awesome!"

It could get kind of ugly, come Monday.

But, in the meantime, here are some photos from the "real" trick-or-treat tonight.

Trick or Treat on Main Street

This afternoon, we had to go downtown anyway, to pick up the cupcakes for Peeper's birthday party tomorrow (I peeked, but they are all boxed up. I'll have photos tomorrow.) so we figured, what the hell. We'll go ahead and get costumed up again and arrive at the appropriate time to do some trick or treating while we're there.

Peeper walked a good bit of the way (we have a non-backpack harness/leash which works great with her costume) and insisted on carrying her pumpkin bucket herself.

As we were leaving, we ran into some MOMS Club friends on the square, waiting for costume contest results (we didn't bother entering, because we knew a store-bought costume would never win). We were thrilled when our photographer friend M's kids won the big prize!

Her five-year-old daughter was the Statute of Liberty (her idea) and her three-year-old brother was a Swedish immigrant. He could not be cuter in his little hat and bow tie!

Both my girls are napping right now, and I just finished baking and decorating the ladybug cookies for the birthday party.

As soon as they wake up, we'll get dressed up again and go over to Eena and Papa's for "real" trick-or-treat.

Oops, there she is now . . . .

More From Yesterday

After our photo shoot, which we did at a local pumpkin patch, we looked around their store for a while, and bought some pretzels because it seemed the least we could do, after using their location. They've got tons of cute cute cute fall decor, and are starting to put out their Christmas stuff, too.

Peeper looooved this giant, shiny jingle bells!

Back home, Peeper helped me take the last of the "garden" veggies out to the compost bin.

And played in the leaves for a while*.

(*A while = Until Mama said, "Okay, I'm done taking pictures. You can get up now.")

Guest Post: Happy Halloween!

From Shrike

Same Song, Third Verse

Peeper wore her ladybug dress not once, but twice, today, first to take photographs this morning and then for the MOMS Club Halloween party this evening.

The party involved about 80 people (35 or so of whom were trick-or-treat age kids), about 15 pizzas (delivered about an hour late!), a costume contest that I was sort of in charge of (someone suggested asking the dads to judge, because they didn't know the kids as well - that worked great!), cookie decorating, trick-or-treat bag decorating, trick-or-treating around the room and lots and lots of running around and squeeeeeling.

Cookie Wrecks

So, the thing is, I have to take a dozen plain sugar cookies to the MOMS Club Halloween party tomorrow evening, so that the kids can decorate them. But I bought a package of break-and-burn (not even slice-and-burn) cookies that makes two dozen.

Soooo, I let Peeper play around with the second dozen.

Eight of them we decorated before baking.

(That is a lie. Maybe five got decorated and baked. The rest were eaten raw.)

The others, I baked with the ones for the party (for insurance) and then iced them and let her decorate them like that.

Then there was a bath. And the sweeping of the kitchen. And later, a foot-bath, because this is what she looked like after "helping" me fweep! fweep! fweep! the kitchen.

And, of course, when I let her have "just one" (read: two) cookie before tooth-brushing-time, she chose that one with all the black sprinkles and sugar, and then proceeded to lick it off, rubbing the cookie all over her face.

I can't wait for Christmas cookie time!

(But I will be decorating the ladybug cookies for her birthday party during naptime.)