Happy Halloween

I knew there was a good chance sweet Emma would take after me when she decided to show up right before Halloween. Honestly, who would want to miss the one holiday where it is acceptable to demand chocolaty goodness from perfect strangers at not one or two houses, but at as many houses as your little legs will take you too...

Genius Idea.

Knowing there was a good chance we would be engrossed with our newest little one when the holiday arrived, I attempted in vain to have all the details in place as early as possible. Sometime in September or early October I came home with the cutest little owl costume for Mia. At the time, her owl sound, "whooo whooo", was so cute I thought I might actually die upon hearing it. 

Thus, the owl seemed like a logical choice...until Mia actually saw the costume.

"No owwwwoolllllllll. No owwwoolllllllll. No owwwoollllllllll."

After both John and I attempted to persuade her to try it on time again, we decided to fold and take Babies-R-Us up on that return policy.

It's a Halloween costume- oh well.

We'll save the "you must put this on in order to leave the house" battle for when she's twelve and tries to exit the house in shorts that more resemble the size of panties, the length of shorts seems like a more appropriate battle to fight than some fabric with an owl face on it.

Since my attempt to plan ahead didn't fair so well, I honestly had no idea what Mia was going to be. She attended both the gymnastics dress up day and the Wake Forest trick or treat in festive clothing rather than in costume. Neither place seemed concerned over the lack of costume wear, so I decided I wouldn't be either. 

Until 7 days before Halloween and 6 days after my due date, when John and I ended up walking the loop at the mall while trying to progress my contractions. Around once, around twice, around three times the mall we went... to the food court and back around. 

This is not a method I will endorse as a kick start to labor. Okay back to the story....

That's when we saw the college apparel store. And the cute little cheerleading outfits inside. Since the cheerleading outfit is basically clothes and didn't involve a hood, I was fairly confident Mia would wear. So, one day before Emma was born, while walking the mall, having contractions, we ordered Mia a NC State cheerleading outfit. 

It showed up a couple of days before the 31st and Mia ended up looking pretty cute, if I do say so myself. 

Unfortunately even newborns are too little for the JV squad and therefore no matching uniform was found for Emma. We decided it might be best to leave Emma at home for an hour or so while we braved the streets looking for sweets.

The days leading up to Halloween we did a little roll playing to try to get in the spirit. I played the roll of the Good Witch who demanded granola and Mommy played the roll of my servant.

When I was finished being the Good Witch, Daddy took a turn and tried to use his magic to help carve us a pumpkin.

Turns out his magic still involved us having to use our hands. I was a little nervous at first.

But quickly warmed up.

Taking a break....

Before the carving began.

Admiring my work.

I will say Emma is really going to have to start pulling her weight in this family... she slept the entire time!

Mommy wanted a cute picture to document our first holiday together... but this is all she got, get used to it Mommy.

Emma finally started to show signs of waking...

And for a minute there I thought she might actually make it to trick-or-treating time....

But nope, she was out again.

I was sad she didn't go with us to the Halloween festivities but quickly got over it when I stuffed my emotions with my first ever cupcake brownie. I love being able to reach the table now.

Trick or Treating with my NC State Cheerleader's Dad.

What a difference a year can make!