HOPPY HALLOWEEN...

... Is what I *thought* I would name this post because I was more than certain Olivia would refuse to wear the costume we (yes, we, even *I* contributed this year) slaved over for days in favor of the ever popular amphibian attire. I'd link blog posts on the frog, but let's be honest, they are far too frequent... just scroll a little and you'll see what I'm talking about.

BUT! I was wrong!

Not even Princess McDiva pants could resist the magic that is Halloween.

But more on that later!

First. The Pumpkins:

hmmmmm??

Olivia was *SUPER* serious about pumpkining. We bought some stickers to avoid a knife accident and subsequent child protective services situation and what not and Olivia was all over it. We discovered a couple things. Olivia apparently thinks animals should not have tails and zebras don't need legs. With every sticker she would decide which appendages were unnecessary and place them accordingly:

Notice the dismembered and mangled wildlife?

The final product.

Meanwhile, the pumpkin master got to work:

He's so handsome!

The final products:

I'll let you decide which is mine and which belongs to Pants.

Hint: Mine took less than three minutes

And next came Halloween!

This is going to sound odd, but I've always wanted to have a daughter and dress her up as Rainbow Brite for Halloween. I know, weird, right? I was born in 1987 AND I grew up overseas, Rainbow Brite has never, ever, ever been in my life in the slightest. Minus a couple hand-me-down board books from an older sister who actually *did* grow up (adolescently speaking) in the height of 80's pop culture.

But whatever, I thought it would be adorable. And I was totally right.

Olivia's costume wasn't actually finished until the actual afternoon of the actual Halloween so there was no chance for us to talk/bribe/beg her into liking it. And here's the hard work break down: I did the tutu, Kyle did the crochet work and we got too lazy to sew the top so we just tied it. It was skanky, yes, but she had on a onesie on the actual night of all hallow's eve or whatever the spooky name is:

This picture, from the day before is a big fat lie. If you could see her from a different angle you'd see a 100% naked nudie behind because I didn't buy enough toole. OOOOppps! An early morning trip to Joanne's and all was fixed.

But whatever, we finished it and much to our surprise, she actually LOVED it.

The arm warmers took some convincing, but when the temperature dropped, she decided to go with it.
And even better, she LOVED trick or treating.
Jimmy, I mean Elmo, decided to join us. And so Rainbow Brite and Elmo headed out on their very first trick-or-treating extravaganza (and Hatsumi's, too), with four parents in tow. Yes, there were four parents and two teeny tiny toddlers. At one door the woman looked like she was about to murder something when she saw Corey and Kyle before I shouted out, "they're down there!" She had apparently not seen the three feet of the most adorable babies ever crowding her doorstep.

The first couple of doors I didn't think this whole trick-or-treating thing would last long. Olivia just didn't get it, but eventually:

She got SO into it. I wish I had better pictures, but Olivia wasn't messing around. She was really down to candy business. She was literally running between the houses yelling out, "MORE CANDY!" and "LET'S GO!" if the crowd wasn't moving along fast enough.
I do have to say, she was such a polite girl, saying "thanky" to every one and making sure Jimmy had at least two pieces of candy in his bucket. Jimmy must have come home with a haul because at every door she would take one for him, one for her, then another one for him.

Olivia probably demanded, "MORE CANDY" hundreds of times in two hours. Yes, they last two hours! But when we got home, all she wanted was the bag of chips...

Okay one last picture so you don't always remember her with that CRAZY stuff we call hair: