Halloween

This year's Halloween caused us to look back over the years, starting with our costume selection.  Every year since Brenna was old enough to pick her own costume, she has picked her fascination at the time, making it easy to remember what she was "in to" at each age based on her halloween costume.  She was three years old the first year she picked her costume and it was Minnie Mouse because Mickey Mouse Clubhouse was her favorite.  The next year it was Pinkalicious and she could practically recite the book word for word.  Then she moved on to Strawberry Shortcake.  The next year she fell into the world of My Little Pony and wanted to be Twilight Sparkle.  And of course, last year she (and every other little girl) carried on the Frozen obsession as Elsa.  So, this year I just knew we were headed for a Barbie Halloween, but then she surprised me.  A large, inflatable, rainbow pair of butterfly wings caught her attention and she decided to be a Rainbow Butterfly.  She said it made perfect sense since she had a butterfly birthday party this year.  Her reasoning was that she wanted to keep up the tradition.  Last year was had a Frozen birthday and then dressed up as Elsa for Halloween  The year before she had a My Little Pony birthday and dressed up as Twilight Sparkle for Halloween.  And so it was settled, butterflies are the theme for 2015.

We got a late start to our usual Fall traditions.  Normally we would have visited the Brigden Fair, but we were away in Puerto Rico that week.  Then, Halloween was here before we knew it.   In an attempt to continue another fall tradition, we made a last minute trip to Korny Korners for pumpkin picking.  The kids were out of school the Thursday and Friday prior to Halloween due to a Christian teacher conference.  Brenna and her friend Sofi were on a mission to find the perfect pumpkin.  The good thing about living in a country that celebrates Thanksgiving before Halloween is that if you procrastinate (as I do) and buy your pumpkins the day before Halloween you can get what felt like 100 pounds of pumpkin for $9.  We walked away with two big ones for carving and four medium, and four mini pumpkins for painting.

The corn maze is always a favorite.

A trip through the Whimsical Woods.

It was a jammed packed weekend.  After our Korny Korners visit, we continued the fun with a friend's Spa themed birthday party on Friday night and a neighborhood Halloween Party on Saturday.  We had lots of treats and crafts and enjoyed our neighborhood friends.  As late afternoon came, it was another cold and rainy Halloween in Sarnia.  We followed last year's tradition of trick-or-treating at the mall.  We met up with more friends and filled our treat bags while staying warm and dry.  Brenna's costume was cumbersome and the first thing to go was the mask.  Then, after smacking a few people in the head and having trouble maneuvering in and out of the crowds, we finally deflated the wings. 

One Rainbow Butterfly, Hermione Granger, and a Rock Star.  

When we got back home I offered to take Brenna around the neighborhood with the umbrella for some door-to-door trick-or-treating, but she wasn't interested in being cold and wet.  She wanted to hang around the house the hand out candy.  She was a little heavy handed with the treats and we had a surprising number of trick-or-treats despite the weather.  So, after scouring the pantry and her own treat bag to have enough, we finally turned the lights out at 9 pm and called it quits.  

It was a fun night.  Now that we're rolling through our second year here in Sarnia, it's nice to feel a little more settled, have less "new" stuff , and more "usuals" to looking forward to.  Our Fall traditions continue!