Halloween 2011

This year for Halloween, we did all sorts of fun stuff! We went to the pumpkin patch with the Falks, we went to the pumpkin patch in OKC for Zoey's first birthday, we went to the pumpkin patch for Avery's very first field trip (which was so much fun!), we went to the Magic House's Not-So-Haunted House (super cute), and we went to the East Alton, Wood River and Hartford parades (of which Avery got to ride in the Hartford parade with Tiffany and Aubrey). We also handed out candy to trick-or-treaters on Sunday night and Monday night, while also doing a little bit of trick-or-treating ourselves!
This year, we had a little ladybug and a princess Belle. Two of the cutest trick-or-treaters I've ever seen. :) This is probably the first Halloween that Avery may really remember, so I'm glad we got to do a lot of fun stuff together this year.
Halloween is one of my favorite times of the year, when we get a good fall, which I think we have gotten so far! I love crisp, cool fall days and doing stuff outside (I love summer, but I hate being outside for long periods of time). BUT I am so excited to put up Christmas decorations this year! It was always tradition in our house growing up to put up Christmas decorations the day after Thanksgiving, and so that's what I've always done, but I think we'll be putting them up a lot earlier this year in our house - it's just so exciting! Christmas shopping starts soon too, so why not?
Back to Halloween, this year we started a new tradition: we gave Avery the option of picking out a few special pieces of candy from her Halloween loot and giving the rest to the "candy fairy" - a fairy that takes the candy far far away from our house and leaves a toy instead. Avery really wanted a pillow pet, so I let her know the candy fairy deal and she decided to give it all away and get a unicorn pillow pet (which we got tonight!). She was sooo so happy and it was so cute to see her that way. She's sleeping with it right now. I think I like this tradition - there's still Halloween candy from last year that was floating around and thrown out when I found it.
Once the Christmas decorations are up, we'll determine when Horton, our Elf on the Shelf, will show up. We may be doing an Elf breakfast this year (thanks Pinterest) to ring in the "elf festivities." Once he's here, I'm going to start posting more frequently about all of Horton's escapades in our house (thanks again Pinterest!).