Halloween 2010: Round 2

Tonight was round 2 of Halloween!

It was the same kind of set-up, but still slightly different. Noel has definitely become an expert trick-or-treater in the past two days.

They had a bounce house which Noel LOOOOVED. Check out the video:

They also had hamburgers, hot dogs, popcorn, all kinds of chili, tons of desserts, and sno cones.

Noel the "Kitty Kitty" - I found this Gymboree costume
on Ebay for $20!

Noel of course spotted the playground and had to "Go Down Slide Now!"

The cutest moment(s) of the night were unfortunately NOT caught on camera. Noel made a friend! A 3-year old boy playing on the "castle" at the same time took a liking to her. While climbing up, the little boy would wait for her at the top, and hold his hand out to help her up onto the platform.

Not only that, but they would HOLD HANDS while waiting in line for the slide. And then GO DOWN THE SLIDE TOGETHER, HOLDING HANDS. How sweet is that???

They did this several times, the whole time I was motioning for Tim to come over with the camera (he was across the playground). I was so upset to not get it on video! After he left, Noel kept asking where the boy went. Then, on the way home, Tim told her that boys are "bad news". Haha



I did (kind of) get a hand holding on video, but you can't really see it. Noel was having a hard time getting up these stairs, so he helped her up.

Halloween 2010: Round 1

Last night Tim, Noel and I headed out to the local church's Fall Festival (just as we did last year!). We decided to do two "trunk or treats" this year because well...1)She's old enough to enjoy it and 2)She has two costumes this year.

Since last night was supposedly cooler than tonight's supposed to be, we decided on her cowgirl costume that Nannie and Poppy bought her when they travelled out west this year. She looked so cute! I wish I had been able to get a good picture of her, but it was almost impossible with a regular digital camera where there's a 3 second delay (My SLR's Auto Focus is not working and I'm not skilled enough to manually focus. I'm a complete amateur with my camera, but what I love most about it is it's instant picture taking!). Noel hates having her picture taken and will make the most terrible faces if she's asked to pose. So that means trying to anticipate smiles or movements and being REALLY lucky to get a picture where I can even see her face.

We went to all of the "Trunks" for trick or treating, and played all the games at each one. When given the chance to choose her own candy, she went straight for the Dum dums!

She kept asking for them, but we kept telling her "when we sit down". So when we finally made it to the picnic shelter where they had AMAZING vegetable beef soup, it was impossible to deny her. She ate probably 6-7 dum dums last night! We did get her to eat a hot dog, and when we got home she ate a full dinner.

They had hay rides and fall portraits again , but no pony rides or bounce house this year. We had a great time and she definitely didn't want to leave, but Tim had to work a few hours last night and we had to get home.

Here are the pictures!

Cowgirl Noel!
Her shirt says "Jackson Hole Wyoming"
The coolest part of her outfit was definitely the boots -
the heels light up w/ each step.

Hayride Time!

Yummy yummy Vegetable Beef soup!

Jack-O-Lanterns

On Friday night, while Tim was working (as usual!) Noel and I dove into the pumpkin carving.

This year we bought two pumpkins and printed out two different templates from the same website we used last year. I let Noel pick the templates too.

While I cut, scraped, and carved the pumpkins, Noel came in and out of the kitchen, insisting that it was time to go outside already. I kept telling her that we would go outside and see the pumpkins once they were ready, but she was just really excited.

On a side note, you would think that a 2 year old would be kind of freaked out by going outside in complete BLACKNESS, but it does not bother her one bit. In fact, she LOVES it. The other night when it was pouring down rain, I opened the door to let the cat in and she asked if she could go out on the deck. I said "sure, go ahead" because I thought for sure she'd feel the cold rain and want right back in. NOPE! She threw the biggest fit when I forced her to come back in!

So back onto pumpkins...we finished our pumpkins and they now grace our front porch. I'm saving the seeds for this spring when I plan on planting them in my garden. I'm determined to have our own pumpkin patch! :)

Look! It's a ghos1!

Ewww...Nasty, mommy!

Terrible terrible pictures. I miss my SLR :(

Spooky Cookies

This month has been extraordinarily busy, but I still wanted to make some Halloween cookies w/Noel. Normally, Mom, Dana and I would spend a couple of days making the dough, cutting the cookies out, making and coloring the icing, and then piping the icing on each cookie. We had a witch, ghost, cat, bat, and a "Boo!" cookie cutter. (Remind me if I'm missing something!)

But this year I took the WAY easy route and bought some Pillsbury Sugar Cookie Dough, and Halloween icing/sprinkles combo.

We still had fun and I didn't have to spend so much time cleaning up!

Tim found her in the kitchen licking the icing off of each cookie!

Hoki Hoki Hoki Hi!

So this past Saturday, I finally had an opportunity to take Noel to Blacksburg for her first tailgating experience.

My uncles, aunt, and cousins were all attending the game and I took advantage of the nice weather and low-attendance (since we played Duke).

I decided to tailgate after the game, but in doing so, I gave myself quite a headache because there were no shuttles running. Because there this, I had to walk from the Prices Fork Lot to behind the stadium.

For reference, check out the map below - the two red dots are my beginning and end points.
And not only that, but I had to carry a 26 lb. toddler about 80% of the way, along with a tote bag full of stuff, and my camera bag.

Whew! We took a few breaks, but it took awhile to make the trek.

We visited with family, and also with Isaac & Jess. Noel loved all of the excitement and attention...she thrives on it! Afterwards, Jess and Isaac offered to help me back to our car. Thank God!

We walked back to Isaac's car, and he drove us to our car. Here are the pictures..




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