Trick or Treat Practice

Halloween, Halloween, Trick or Treat!

This year we took Ava out trick or treating for the first time. She was really excited as we had been talking about it for weeks and she asked to wear her costume about 50 times before the big day.

Here are Darren & Ava setting out in G&P's neighborhood...
At first Ava was shy about going up to get candy but after 1 house (and actually getting candy) she did not need any help. I love this photo not only for Ava's giddy face at getting candy but also because Darren & Rudy (Pops) have almost identical smiles. Guess that is why I call Darren, Rudy Jr. sometimes and Rudy, Darren Sr. sometimes...I swear they act the same A LOT.

Ava posing outside with a giant Scooby (as I post this she is singing the theme song, never seen the show but Darren taught her the song).

And here is Ava & I on the staircase waiting for trick or treaters to come. Yes I painted my face like Ava's kitty face (see here: http://avaokru.blogspot.com/2009/10/goblin-glow.html) and no it's not as good but Ava loved it all the same. I had no intention of dressing up but Ava insisted on buying face paint that day so I put it to use.

The best part of the night was when we asked Ava what her favorite part was (we do this every day after school and at other times and it is always interesting to see what she will say). I thought for sure trick or treating would be here favorite but here is what she said "My favorite part was giving candy to the boys and girls." That's right GIVING candy was her favorite part - she will still tell you that. And it was funny to see her pass out candy b/c she gave HUGE handfuls to anyone stopping by & loved seeing all the kids dressed up. It was a great Halloween and I can't wait for next year!

Pumpkin Carving

So we started our Halloween off in Conroe by doing a little pumpkin carving. Ava was really excited about it beforehand. Here she is hugging the pumpkin... and showing us how she was going to scoop the pumpkin guts out.

However it came to the actual moment to do it and she had no desire to touch the pumpkin "goo" as she called it. Barely looked at it and decided it was not for her which is odd since Ava loves to be messy and has no problem touching anything sticky. Oh well. Darren & I had a good time carving our pumpkin up anyways.

Me hacking away at it (seriously I look like I am attacking the pumpkin with the knife)..

My side of the pumpkin...yes I like to do untraditional free hand pumpkins so they aren't as professional as other people's...I still liked it.

And here is Darren with his side of the pumpkin. He was excited apparently!

Petting Zoo/Fall Festival

We headed to our church Fall Festival today and had so much fun. They had so many kid things there including a petting zoo. Ava was the kid who had to be coaxed into going in, but once there she never wanted to leave.

Here is Darren trying to get Ava to hold a little chick...she did and thought it was really funny.

Here is Ava laughing at the little piglets...

My favorite photo of the day...Ava holding (and almost choking or so it looks like) a little bunny. She thought it was great that you could pick up the animals if you wanted.

Ava, as always, enjoying the bouncy houses...

and a family photo (minus me) at the end of the day. Thanks G&P for coming in town to help out!

Dress Up

Darren found our old box of costumes today when he was in the attic and brought them down for Ava to play with. She loved the feather boas, beads and the wigs. Granny & Pops were even good enough sports to get in on the fun...
And then of course, Darren & I also wanted in on the wig action...

Pretty Princesses

Ava & Saywer all dressed up as pretty princesses for Me-Mommy's Fall Festival, Belle & Cinderella. So cute!

Goblin Glow

Tonight we headed over to Lakeway City Park for their Goblin Glow Trick or Treating event...we had no idea what to expect but had a blast...we did not know how much fun Ava would have and had to drag her kicking and screaming home...literally.

Ava was shy at first (the stilt walkers creeped her out) but once she saw the face painting tent, she got excited...

Here she is sitting still (for once!) getting her kitty cat face on...

Afterwards!! I swear after she got her face painted she went from being shy to being super crazy fun girl.

Darren showing Ava how to trick or treat (you went from hot air balloon to hot air balloon to get candy..they were grounded of course)

Me & Ava being silly...rare Mommy & Ava photo.

and the balloons all lit up...hence the name Goblin Glow. All in all it was an amazing (and free!) event that I definitely want to do every year. Live music, trick or treating, face painting, balloon animals, stilt walkers, what more could you ask for???

Pumpkin Patch

We headed to the pumpkin patch today with Gabe & kids for a little bit of fun..Ava as always enjoyed the playground there more than the pumpkins but I still managed to get some photos of her in the pumpkins...

Ava loved picking up pumpkins and either throwing (thank God none of them broke) or moving them to another spot.

One of the actual posed shots..too bad Lexie did not make it in this shot.

Moving pumpkins...

Sliding with Sawyer...

Sliding/hugging with Lexie & Sawyer

Espanol

Ava has been counting in Spanish lately at random times. The first time we heard her do this, she skipped around a lot but tonight she actually almost got it all right (she missed tres/three but whose counting? other than Ava that is?)

Playdate with Sienna

We had Sienna, a girl Ava knows from tumble class, over today for a little playdate and the girls had a great time together. They probably played with every toy we had, and what I thought was going to be a short little playdate ended up being a nice long 2.5 hour event. It was great! The 2 girls entertained one another enough that Jen & I were able to actually talk and hang out a bit.

The girls loved when I got the playdough out....

and played a game I like to call "Open Wide" since that is all they said for about 15 minutes as they pretended to shovel "food" into one another's mouths. Pretty funny. It went so well that we are planning on doing this regularly with Sienna & Jen.

The Musical Stylings of Ava

Ava loves to sing. I constantly find her singing a wide variety of songs and sometimes even made up ones. For at least 15 minutes the other day, she entertained Darren & I with this ditty. She basically repeats the same word/words over and over and we are not sure what she is exactly saying. Which is weird since the majority of the time we know what she is saying.

It sounds like "Yesterday" or maybe "Doctor say" (which is almost a line from 5 little monkeys jumping on the bed) but when you ask her where she learned this song she says nothing. So who knows. All I know is that she is one funny little girl.

Princess Obessesion

So ever since Ava played with Sawyer's Cinderella doll, she has had a thing for princesses. Awhile back we bought her a bunch of Disney princess figurines and she LOVES them. She loves to take the dresses off and switch them around and I'm always surprised that 1) she knows which princess is which even if they are not in their original outfit and 2) she knows which outfit actually belongs on which princess.

We finally watched Cinderella on DVD (thanks to Me Mommy) and just recently watched the Little Mermaid and Snow White. Next up: Sleeping Beauty. We do fast forward through some of the scarier parts or talk her through them (Ava always says "She's not nice" whenever the stepmother in Cinderella is on the screen) and so far she has liked all of them a lot and none have scared her.

Ava & AJ Dancing

Finally got around to uploading these from my video camera...these are some funny videos of Ava & AJ dancing from our trip to Houston in late Sept. These kids have some moves!