Halloween

Hope you all had a great Halloween.  To be honest this really isn't my favorite holiday.  I do enjoy hanging out with my neighbors and seeing the kids get excited about their costumes, however I am glad it is over.  I am ready to move on to the other BIG holidays ... but before then a ton few pictures from our adventures last night.

Yes Chatty was a soccer player - not much of a costume but she couldn't make a decision and it didn't cost me any additional cash so I went with it.

Bia has mastered the fake smile

Bia and her BFF

Chatty and her Knight in Shining Armor (our neighbor Jack)

Bia, BFF and BFF's lil sister

Riding in style

Mr. ESPN's creation

Enjoying her stash

As usual we had a great time with our neighbor's.  We were so glad Bia's BFF's family could join us this year - they are so much fun!  Stay tuned for a post on my NYC adventures!

Where Did All of the Candy Corn Go???

I am having some serious issues with my local grocery store.  They don't have this:

Specifically this kind:

I have searched high and low in the candy aisle and the Halloween aisle and can't locate it.  Don't they know it isn't Halloween if you don't have Brach's candy corn?  Chatty tried to get me to buy the cheap generic stuff - little does she know that the generic kind tastes like wax.  She must get that from her dad.  Mr. ESPN has been know to buy generic candy corn.  It's kind of like buying Pepsi (ugh!) instead of Coke! 

Halloween Recap

I am not a huge fan of Halloween.  Mr. ESPN and I don't dress up ... and most of the Halloween decorations we have are courtesy of my mom.  I do enjoying dressing up the girls and they love everything about Halloween - the costumes, candy, you name it.  We celebrated with our neighbors with a pre-trick or treating potluck in the street.  Afterwards the dads took the kids out and the moms passed out candy. 

Speaking of which, I am not too thrilled with the large quantity of candy in my house. I was off today and officially lost count of how many pieces of candy I ate.  Needless to say it wasn't pretty and negated the 6 miles I ran this morning. 

Since our kids are always in such a rush to hit the streets as soon as they get their costumes on, we decided to do a trial run after church to get some photos in their costumes. 

Tinkerbell & a Phillies baseball player

In case you weren't sure who Chatty was ...

her favorite player Chase Utley

Ready to hit the streets

With the neighbors

"Daddy my bag is too heaby!!"

Halloween 2009

Halloween was super busy ... morning soccer game .... errands .... clean the house .... street party ... trick or treating .... candy ... and more street party. I spent a total of $5 on the girls costumes this year. We shopped at Miss Margaret's house (my neighbor down the street) for Chatty's Little Red Riding Hood outfit (yes the dress doubles as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz but Chatty has no idea who Dorothy is). Bia wore Chatty's old Nemo outfit - she insisted on it. $5 for white tights and white shirt. Can't beat the price. Mr. ESPN was thrilled with my frugality. Bia loved being Nemo and promptly told everyone who she was "Neeeemo". She was super polite and said Trick or Treat and Thank you to all of the adults in the neighborhood. Gotta love when they use their manners.

Her fake smile was really making me frustrated

Miss Margaret even gave us a basket too!


We found Nemo!
Simling for her Daddy!

Fake smile number 989 (yes I know red shoes would look better ...)

At least Nemo had a cute grin!

A little bit better

In front of our neighbors house

4 of the 5 in our gang ... Skeleton is missing ...

Enjoying the loot! She didn't want to take the costume off - it was warm and snuggly

So my computer is still broken ... our help desk is worthless. Apparently it wasn't the motherboard - although I have a new "refurbished" one, it is a software problem now. At the earliest I will get my laptop back at the end of the day but probably not until sometime tomorrow - if I am lucky! In the meantime I have been looking all over the Internet for costume ideas (yes I know great to do at work .. but in my defense it is my lunch hour and I do the best online shopping when I am at work). I thought a geisha girl would be cute for both of the girls. Mr. ESPN had bought Chatty a silk dress when he was in China a couple years ago (he also bought me a silk robe and I briefly-very briefly contemplated dressing up with them). I figured the dress would fit Bia - great one costume resolved until I figured out that I can't find the silk dress anywhere in my house and mind you, I am very OCD organized with labeled containers full of kids/baby clothes! What the heck?!? I still have Chatty's old Nemo costume but Bia is "Miss Independent" so I am not sure if she will wear it, but knowing her she wouldn't decide not to wear it until October 31! So with that in mind I have been looking for other costumes and ideas. I did find this cute Dalmatian costume online at Old Navy.

I need to run Old Navy and see if they have one in the store. They also had this cute monkey one too for half the price. Seeing as she has to sleep with Puppy and Monkey every night, I thought these might make her happy.

I need to see what they have in the store (good excuse to buy some more yoga pants/capris .... I heard they had some on sale from my blogging friends). I will show Bia these pictures tonight and see what she thinks. Still no ideas for Chatty ... she has been the following ... 50's girl (poodle skirt my mom made), Minnie Mouse (another costume idea I had for Bia but can't find this one either - what the heck is going on? I think it got donated), Nemo and Cinderella. She likes princesses but isn't huge into them, hence the reason I haven't thought about any of the other Disney princesses. Any time I suggest a costume idea she says "YES". Darn kid loves everything, well not really, she just likes to change her mind a lot - what can I say she is an indecisive girl!