Halloween

   Halloween was a lot of fun this year. Olivia really got in to choosing her costume. We spent a couple of hours looking at Walmart and our local Halloween store to find the perfect costume. She had already told me that she wanted to be Belle from Beauty and the Beast, so I had been keeping my eye out as soon as Halloween costumes were out in the stores. I knew making a costume would not be as easy this year since she wanted to have Belle's yellow dress from the dancing scene in the movie, not her blue dress with white apron that she wears during the rest of the movie. We did find a dress that I was willing to pay for at the Halloween store complete with hoop skirt! It is also a little big so that she can use it for dress up for several years.

We started out the celebration the night before Halloween by having Mummy dogs (hot dogs wrapped in crescent roll strips), witches fingers (sweet potato fries), and eyeballs (green peas) for dinner. We actually had these last year for the first time and they were a big hit with both Olivia AND Bart!

Halloween was on a Wednesday, so we planned our outings around attending the "Light the Night" event our church hosted. Our downtown businesses go all out and hand out candy from 3 to 5. This is a great event and it has gotten really big! One business said they bought 2000 pieces and candy and they ran out before 4:30. Several police officers stood at the intersections and handed out candy and directed traffic so that the lines of people would be safe. I picked Olivia up at her preschool and brought her to my classroom to have a quick snack and get her costume on. It was super cold and windy so she wore a turtleneck and leggings under to dress. I coached her a little bit on the way uptown about proper Halloween etiquette in saying "trick or treat" and "happy Halloween" and "thank you" after getting candy at each store. She did a great job this year and even remembered to hold out her bag. She was fascinated by all the different costumes. There really were some really creative and unique ones this year.

Ready to go!

Holding up her beautiful dress!

"Belle" and "Ms. Potts"

Holding up her candy bag!

Minnie and Mickey Mouse were there

Having her picture made with real "queens".

The scary pirate at BB&T that she recalls every time we go to the bank!

Olivia and Daddy in the lines of people!

After walking through all of downtown, we headed over to our church. Our Sunday School classes decorated their doors inside with themes from the Bible--ours was "fruits of the spirit" and there was also Noah's ark and "fishers of men" themes. The youth took the kids in small groups down "treat street" to go trick or treating. There were hot dogs, chips, popcorn, and, thank goodness, hot chocolate. Olivia had 3 cups while we were there. Once we ate, I took off Olivia's dress and put her in a nice warm sweater because you can't very well jump in a bounce house in a hoop skirt! Bart helped supervise the bounce houses and then helped hand out candy for our Sunday School class for a little while. Olivia took a little time to get warmed up in the bounce houses with the obstacles and slide, but once she got the hang of it with some of the youth showing her how to do it and encouraging her, we had to drag her out.

Waiting in line for the bounce house

We came back to the house and while Scrooge Bart sat in the dark so we didn't have to worry about trick or treaters, Olivia and I walked around our neighborhood trick or treating some more. Olivia was really excited about it. Our neighborhood is a pretty busy place for trick or treating with lots of houses going all out with decorations. Several houses had fire pits lit, music going, and were having a good old time. There were some with some pretty scary decorations complete with fog coming out of headstones. Many people would comment about how pretty she was  to which she would reply, "I'm Belle". I was so proud of her saying trick or treat and thank you at pretty much every house. Olivia loved the whole night. The walk back to our house was slow, but she walked the whole way.