Trick or Treat–The Weekend

This will quite possibly be the longest “Trick or Treat” post ever, because it feels like we’ve been at it all weekend long…and really we have.

We certainly got our money’s worth out of our costume this year! AB has worn her pumpkin outfit countless times this past month, and tonight was the last time. It’s officially been retired.

What fun it’s been, though!

We hit up the some of the family who live close by on Friday night for AB’s first night of trick or treating. Cousin Willie and William & Stephanie went with us, and so did David, Danielle & Cori.

Uncle Adam helping Annabelle pick some treats!

AB was big stuff and even said, “trick treat” (which sounded more like “chick cheat”) at each stop. Of course we’re partial, but we thought she was a doll. Good thing we only went to family’s houses, because they’re all partial, too…and they thought we had the cutest pumpkin, dinosaur and Tinkerbelle ever!

AB’s “Aunt Nen” with our little trick or treaters

When we got to Pappy & Granny’s little miss was already a pro, and didn’t need Daddy to hold her hand!

Luckily, she wasn’t too grown up to take a picture with her ole Momma & Daddy though!

Willie’s “GrandMama” is out of town, so his “Nandy” made sure to get some candy and we stopped there, too. Uncle Jack is sure to be a favorite of Annabelle’s from now on, because he had Smarties in his treat bucket! She was too cute picking through the candy and pulling out a hand full of Smarties every time! After 3 handfuls, we decided that was plenty! Ha…

 

Uncle Van & Aunt Amber had DumDums in their treat bucket, and that, too is a top fave of our girl!

After we hit a few houses, we’d planned to do the Trail or Treaters in town, but since we got a late start and our babies are still kind of little, we decided to skip it. I can’t wait until they are older though, because trick or treating in town looks so fun! Lots of people get big groups together and pull trailers with hay on them loaded down with parents and kids all around town trick or treating!

We made a stop at Stephanie’s parents house (who live in town) and got to see a few trailer loads of friends on our way out of there… we also recognized this little piggy and her peeps who were strolling down the street…Madelyn looks like she wants some of AB’s lollipop! Ha…

After all that hard work, we headed for some dinner, then home to survey the goods! (and sample them, too!)

When we laid Annabelle down for bed that night, instead of the usual “nigh-nigh” that we get from her, she said, “trick treat”! So we counted her first night as a success!

Saturday the Fall Fun was still in full swing! We sent DW off to the Georgia-Florida game in Jacksonville (I decided to sit this year out), and we packed our bags and headed to the other side of the county! We met up with Carrie & Allie Claire in hopes of getting some cute pictures of the girls at the Pumpkin Patch.

The girls (dressed in their matching Halloween shirts) weren’t really feeling pictures that day… This is the best one I got of the two of them together…

They were so silly and didn’t want to pose for a picture at all. They did enjoy running around and climbing on all those pumpkins, though.

Instead of posing in front of the little “pumpkin house” (?) they liked hiding in it better.

And peeking out, of course, too!

After many tries…

 

I finally got a couple cute ones of my girl…

After some lunch, AB and I dropped the girls off and we headed for Grammy & Pop’s house. Momma, AB, and I did some shopping and then made it home to watch the end of the game with my Dad.

It was a close one, and I was worried about my man having a heart attack at the stadium, but the Gators pulled it off and my favorite two fans were able to sport their orange and blue to church this morning!

This afternoon, we headed back over to my parents’ way for my Granny’s birthday! She’s a Halloween baby and today marks her 83rd birthday! We had such a good afternoon sitting on her back porch enjoying the breeze and being with each other. Annabelle kept us all entertained and on our toes. She was either being her silly self or her dare-devil self, so one minute we were laughing and the next we’d be holding our breath…

We ate dinner on the patio and AB had to put her costume back on so that she could trick or treat for Great-Granny, too!

Mom made the best Mississippi Mud Cake I’ve had in years for Granny’s b-day cake and it was the perfect ending to a great weekend!

Hope your trick-or-treat weekend was a sweet as ours!

~amw~

Chheeeeessseee…..

Yesterday afternoon, I was unloading the dishwasher, and I heard AB saying, “Cheese.” (which sounds something like “deese” when she says it.) She was behind me in the living room, and she just kept saying it over and over again. The washing machine was going in the laundry room, and when it’s washing it sounds like it’s fixing to take flight. (It’s been on it’s last leg for about 3 years now, but it keeps hanging in there, and we’re hoping it doesn’t quit any time soon!)

Anyway, with the washer going, I couldn’t really hear anything else other than AB’s “DEESE”…until I heard a “beep”…

I knew the beep sounded familiar, and assumed it was something little miss wasn’t suppose to be playing with. My assumptions proved right and I found prissy holding my diaper bag camera in one hand and some mints from Backyard BBQ in her other. She’d gotten into her diaper bag and helped herself.

I noticed the camera was on, so I looked to see if she had really taken any pictures. AND SHE HAD. Like TEN! They are hilarious. And the fact that she was telling all her subjects to say “Cheese” is precious!

Here’s my little photographer’s first photos:

I think she was trying to take “Cha-Cha” the Turtle’s picture…

 

Our living room ceiling

 

 

Her baby stroller. This is my favorite. So sweet that she took her stroller’s picture. And you can tell she was intending to do it…it’s perfectly center and clear. :) (She took like 5 of her stroller!)

I take it back, this is probably my favorite. She tried to take a picture of herself. She managed to get her arm and shirt in it! Ha… She had to have learned the self-portrait trick from my cousin, Stephanie! 

Even though playing with Momma’s camera is a “no-no”, I’m glad she took these pictures! I think they’re precious, just like her!

~annie~

Pumpkin Party Pictures

What a fun night Friday turned out to be!

Annabelle and her BFF, Allie Claire, hosted the party we’d all been counting down for! We had the invitations designed by the Etsy store, “Chickabug”, and I think they turned out so cute!

 

Our little Pumpkins got to run wild and free (followed closely by Grammy, Granny and Aunt Nen before the party started and while Carrie and I were finishing up last minute things…)

 

When the guests arrived, they were welcomed to the Lodge by two big “pumpkins”… Annabelle’s Pappy painted two hay bales orange for us, and 30 minutes before the party started, I was down at the end of the drive way painting on the faces! Nothing like last minute! Ha… The pumpkins turned out so cute, and I so wanted to move them in front of our house, but they hay plus these cows means only one thing…and it wouldn’t end well for the hay.

 

We had so much fun planning and setting up for the party. I think the orange streamers, lanterns, and candy corn trees gave the party the “kid” feel we were going for… 

 

We made the candy corn trees using old paint cans (thankfully, Carrie just painted a house, so she had plenty to use)…then I cut some branches and spray painted them black. We stuck them in styrofoam and packed newspaper around them to make them stand up straight and topped them off with candy corn. The kids LOVED being able to sneak candy corn! I’m not so sure the mommas appreciated it very much! Ha…

We had pumpkins everywhere… even hanging in the trees!

Carrie even found a pumpkin piñata…

The food table was as a “fall-ish” buffet of chili, hotdogs, and baked potatoes with all the toppings…

  

AB’s Daddy & Pop (my Dad) firing up the grill…

The dessert table was filled to the brim with yummy kid-friendly goodies…

Our guests started to arrive and we were so happy to have them! We had over 50 people…Mommas, Daddies, and even some grandparents were on hand to have some fun! Of course Allie & Annabelle invited theirs! Here’s AB with her Grammy, Pop, Pappy & Granny after the party.

 

We’d planned a few things for the kids, including the corn trough. We did this for our family reunion a couple weeks ago, and the kids loved it. It was a hit at the pumpkin party, too! From the oldest to the youngest, everyone enjoyed playing in it…

 

We’d also planned a hayride. The hayride banner that Carrie did was one of my favorite things at the party! Uncle Adam drove for us, and Pappy called up the buffalo really close to the trailer so the kids could get a good look at them! The cutest was when Ryleigh (aka “Cowgirl Jessie” from Toy Story) wanted to know if we could get a pink “buckalo”…) ha…

We had so many kids that we split the hay ride up into two groups. Here’s the first group heading out…

and the second group loading up…

Thanks, Uncle Adam for driving! You always make everything fun!

(I had to steal this picture from Aunt Nen because it was too sweet!)

When the hay ride was over, it was time to get down to business…pumpkin carving business! 

We had each family (that wanted to) bring a pumpkin and knives for carving…

First they started at the “Guttin’ Table”… we’d covered both the “Guttin’ and Carvin’” tables with newspaper to keep things a little less messy.

Things got serious over at the Carving table…

 

Some of the finished pumpkins lined up waiting for the judging…

The “judges” (my older niece and nephew), chose one family to win for the best carved pumpkin. The McKenzie’s scored a gift card to Dairy Queen. The judges also chose a costume contest winner. They couldn’t chose just ONE, and since we’d only gotten one prize for the costume winner (also a DQ gift card), I had to call for back-up… I hit AB’s Pop and Pappy up for some cash. Everybody knows that Grandaddy’s always have cash on hand, and are more than willing to shell out a little bit when their darling Granddaughter is in need for some! :)  All of the kids were so precious in their costumes, but the judges picked Ella & Audrey (The Dalmatians), Braley (The Scarecrow) and Gus (the mexican) as the winners.

Nobody left the party empty handed though… AB and AC sent all their friends home with goody bags…

We attempted to get a big group photo of all the kids (and some of the mommas keeping them together), but it was pretty much impossible! ha…

We called this the “First Annual” pumpkin party, and even put it on everything from the water to the goody bags in hopes that we have started a tradition.

After the fun we had on Friday night, I’m pretty sure we have!

~amw~