Happy Halloween!

We decided to really make the most of the Quad Cities' Halloween events, so this year we took Evalee to the Children's Museum's Scarecrow Shenanigans, the zoo's Boo at the Zoo, and even our grocery stores Halloween Hike. I realize that a lot of these events are geared towards slightly older children, but I always think she benefits a lot from interacting with lots of kids and trying to do things the older kids are doing.

The museum was packed with things to do and kids doing them. She played games first. She watched some older kids play ring toss, bean bag toss, etc. and did her own version of the games, which usually involved softly placing the items where they were supposed to go. Regardless of her mode, she won pieces of candy and was very excited to put them in her treat bag. They had lots of crafts for the kids to make, but she wasn't very excited about them. We did decorate a mini pumpkin with googly eyes, a huge purple noise (Eva's choice), pipe cleaner ears and glitter glue accents. We also made a gross finger pencil topper from molding clay and acrylic paint, but I ended up finishing that one. What she loved most was the horse-drawn hayrack ride. The horses were HUGE and beautiful. Then we enjoyed the museum and all our usual favorites: the toddler area, the outdoor playground, the human heart you can run through, etc.

The next weekend we dressed up again and headed out to Boo at the Zoo. We had so much fun last year and we were excited to take such a different Eva there again this year. She loved the trip to the zoo because it involved a school bus ride. This mean she got to ride on Daddy's lap instead of in her carseat! Once we got there she made a bee line for the elephants. All week, she has been finding pictures of elephants in her books, waving at them, and saying hello. So, she was pretty excited to finally get to say hi to the real things. After the elephants, she got to ride on a pony. It's crazy to think just a couple of months ago when we purchased her pony ride ticket, she was too scared to go through with it. This time, she squealed with excitement and gave us the biggest smiles she could spread on her face through her whole turn. The amount of people at the event was just a tad bit overwhelming, and we weren't really sure how we wanted to approach the rest of the zoo. Lines wrapped around everywhere you looked, and we only had about an hour before our ballerina would be in need of a nap. So we went through the zoo backwards, sort of, and got to visit some booths for candy and toys and spend a long time waving to the giraffes. The weather was fantastic and was warm enough to see all the cute costumes, so we all had a good time.

After a nap and some relaxation, we decided to go to HyVee's Halloween Hike. Eva painted a pumpkin with acrylic paint (and managed to eat some and send many people into a slight panic), painted a pumpkin sugar cookie with frosting, and even got her first stick on tattoo. Once we were done, we drove up to Benny's to have a pizza for dinner. We booted up some Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That on my phone and enjoyed a very stress-free wait time for our pizza.

Then it was the big event: Halloween itself. Travis had a 6 p.m. live shot, which meant he didn't get to join us until trick or treating was almost over. But luckily, Abby was able to come out and keep me company as we made our way around the neighborhood. I wasn't sure how Evalee would do trick or treating, and I was surprised to see just how much fun she really had. She was so excited to say hi and open her bag for candy. She was most excited when a bowl of candy was offered to her. She was dance in place and shriek with excitement, and sometimes she even forgot a piece of candy in all her excitement. The neighbors marveled at her little tutu and she just ate up the compliments. Once trick or treating was over in Orion, we headed out to visit Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Mary and Uncle Jim before finally ending up at Aunt Carol's for lots of good food. It was a busy but very fun night.

Saying hi to our favorite weathergirl (is that an offense term now??) Cassie Heiter.

Eva with the WQAD's very own Terry Swails.

Saying hello to her elephants.

Pure joy.

She was very careful to choose just the right candy bar. She always chose wisely.

I will be sad on the day where she is not this excited about the carrousel.

Fell asleep on the bus ride home again this year.

Enjoying some candy after Boo at the Zoo.

She wasn't down for smiling as Daddy suggested.

Caught frosting-handed at HyVee's Halloween Hike.

watching her favorite cat and waiting for our pizza