Halloween Part 2

I swear we got tons of use out of Mia's Halloween costume this year. I think we got to wear it to a total of 6 different events, so I'm glad we chose something that was simple and basically a dress. This meant that she actually kept it on. In fact, she loved it so much that it is now in hiding.

Let's see....to continue....Mia dressed up for her music class.

Mia popping bubbles in music. Do you see the baby dressed as a prisoner? Funny.

Dancing with scarves....maybe one of her favorite activities.

On the way home I stopped and picked up some Peeps. I don't like them and quickly learned that neither does Mia nor does the marshmallow addict Ten....go figure.

Later in the week, we went to Mia's gym class. She loved all of the Dr. Seuss decorations they had up for Halloween. I was glad they 
decorated without making it creepy. Perfectly chosen theme if you 
ask me....Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to snap any pictures.

Mia on the trampoline. Sometimes she will spend half an hour running back and forth on it.

Her favorite teacher was dressed up as the Lorax.

The Grinch in the background.

On Halloween, we decided to take Mia trick or treating. This was actually kind of by accident or rather last minute I should say. I missed the deadline to sign up to hand out candy, so at the last minute we decided to take her to the apartments in the building.

One of maybe the 20 or so apartments we visited. We spent a total of 45 minutes trick or treating and we were all beat afterwards. She loved knocking on the doors, picking out her candy, and then telling everyone bye.

Enjoying her lollipop. She guards these with her life...haha.

Some of her Halloween loot.

On Friday, we had our final and biggest Halloween event. We went to her school for the party that they had there. They sang songs, played in the gym, made crafts, had their pictures taken, decorated cupcakes, had a parade (which Mia thought was super funny), and ate pizza. It was a jam packed 2 hours and lots of fun.

By the end of the night....she was Halloweened out.

Goody bag which included bubbles, a cookie, stickers, sunglasses, a ball, some small toys, and a smoothie and bath bomb from LUSH for the moms. Thank you school! That bath was much needed after all of the planning and escorting of our little ones around town!

Mia's picture frame. She did a really good job making sure the eyes and nose got put where they belong. Also, she called the stem his "hat." I thought...yeah...I can totally see how you would think that...hahaha. Great job!

That concludes our Halloween festivities. We were really busy and had a lot of fun. In all honesty, I ripped down our decoration on Saturday and Sunday. I was ready to have a little bit of a holiday break before Thanksgiving and Christmas. Like I said, lots of fun but didn't want to get burnt out on the festivities.

Halloween Part 1

We have been in desperate need of a decluttering/reorganizing of our apartment. I think I have mentioned it several times. So, I called in emergency backup last week. My mom and her husband came and helped me rip through the apartment. In about a day we were able to reorganize all of the closets, the entire kitchen, and the entire bedroom. This leaves only the dining/kitchen area left for me and Ten to work on. Finally, we have some order in the madness.

We also were able to have a bit of fun while they were here.

We celebrated a birthday.

The gorgeous cheesecake that Ten picked up on his way home. I would say it was enough for 12 people. We had cheesecake for days.

On Saturday, we went over to the Pumpkin Fest at Central Park. A pumpkin patch in the middle of the city. We got there right when the event began, so we barely had any wait time at all. 

Our little bumble bee deciding which pumpkins would be going home with us.

Family photo with one of our pumpkins.

Heading over to the other stations. They had lots of games and even a haunted house....all for free I might add...even the pumpkins....really nice event.

Making the pumpkin all pretty to take home.

Mini area for fall photos.

 After looking around at some of the booths, we decided it was time to go grab lunch. Also, it was getting so crowded at the park that we wanted to escape before it just got too tiring. We decided to pop over to a restaurant called Dallas BBQ. The serving sizes were absolutely huge and the BBQ itself was pretty good, but some things were below average....I doubt (or pretty much can guarantee) that we won't be coming here again.

Mia and her pipe cleaner spider checking out the decor.

An onion loaf....which was pretty much tasteless!! I had to dump tons of salt on mine to make it edible. That is saying a lot from people that don't salt anything.

Honey roasted chicken (really good), baby back ribs, corn bread, and very, very tasteless fries.

Free Halloween cupcakes to end the meal...I think Mia was pretty excited to get to eat the icing off of it without anyone stopping her. Such a pretty smile.

When we got home it was around 2:00, and so we were all pretty tired. Ten and Mia napped while the rest of us watched a bit of TV. Around 4:00 we headed back out to a Halloween party for kids at a nearby church. They had lots of little activities for little ones.

Playing with chalk.

This was the first time Mia got to play with hula hoops, and I'm pretty sure she thought they were the coolest things.

She also got to play in her very first bouncy house. We usually have to skip these because there are just too many big kids, but the church did a great job of grouping kids by age.

On Sunday, my mom headed back home. We also got a phone call saying our swimming class was cancelled because the teacher was sick. I was secretly doing back flips in my mind because that meant we had a whole day to ourselves to just hang out at home.

Roseola does not make for a carefree weekend.

Kudos to those people that have their weekend blog posts ready to go first thing in the morning. Seriously, how do you find the time? I am genuinely impressed my friends.

So, there was once a nice family who lived on the Upper West Side. They did fun things like go to the park together, attend play groups, and watch the occasional Disney movie while eating ice cream. They were such a happy family. One day, the youngest of the clan got a fever. A fever that was to last 4 days long. This fever would then be followed by a rash, and the great medicine woman diagnosed said illness as Roseola.

Yes, my friends....that little intro is what we have been dealing with for the past week....and let me tell you...it is not fun. Not one bit. This made Mia's ear infection seem like a trip to Hawaii. She has been miserable to the tenth degree, but we have been assured that it will all end soon....here is to hoping!

Anyway, while battling her virus....we did decide to get out and do a few things over the weekend. The doctor said that she was no longer contagious, and I seriously had to escape the nightmare that we had been living...even if it was just for a little bit.

Proof of said nightmare: Cream stew for dinner on Friday night....none of us like it much....but it was the fastest thing that could be made so I could get back to nurse duties.....sad night.

Anyway, on Saturday morning we woke up and headed to the Rutgers Presbyterian Church to attend a performance of Stomp, Clap, and Make Bangs. It was a puppet/musical show put on by Theatre Arts Japan, so we decided to take advantage.

Ten and I are still debating what this animal was supposed to be. In the end, I think it was part mouse, part bear, part raccoon. Yes, that must be it. 

Mia stayed entertained for most of it though, so winner.

Off she goes to check out what is behind the scenes.

After a really confusing show about Boo and her forest friends, we decided to stop at a diner for lunch. After our cream stew dinner....we were wanting something with a bit more substance I guess you could say....so we had gigantic burgers.

Mia enjoyed some tots. Can't you tell how thrilled she was to be out after the show. Notice the spots on her face?

Moving on to Sunday. Ten went to Trader Joe's and picked up this lovely cinnamon whisk. At the same time, I bought this Yankee Candle in cinnamon stick.....hahaha. I guess we both thought cinnamon would be the perfect scent for the apartment. So, random.

We decided to brave the world again and see if Mia would like to go to her swim lesson. She was doing a great job for about 90% of it, but she got cranky at the end.

shot of the whole class

On the way home, Mia did have quite the meltdown. We put her straight to bed, and then Ten decided to use her nap time to go to the pumpkin patch (aka Trader Joe's) and he picked some beauties I might say.

Mia deciding that the pumpkins needed to be stacked.

....and then that 4 pumpkins was totally too many for a family of 3. She promptly put one pumpkin in the bottom of her stroller to dispose of at a later time.

On the agenda this week: decorate lovely pumpkins, slay the evil dragon of Roseola for good, and welcome out of town family (the only kind we have) here for a busy 4 days. Have a great week all!