Halloween 2014

Another Halloween is in the books and I would say it was a good one! Ellie was really into it this year, although it took a lot of questioning (and some suggestion on my part) for her to decide on a Halloween costume. First she said she wanted to be a duck (been there), then jelly beans (done that). After explaining to her that the point was to be something different every year, I suggested maybe she could be a character from her favorite tv show, Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. She immediately piped up with, "Daniel! I want to be Daniel!" I was more than happy to oblige. I found her a pair of red Converse Chuck Taylors, my mom found her a red sweater at a second hand store and I ordered a tiger tail and ears off of Amazon.

I ended up buying our pumpkin from this quaint little pumpkin patch called the base commissary, which we carved the weekend before Halloween. And by we, I mean my wonderful husband because Ellie had no desire to help pull the insides out, so it was up to Brian to do the dirty work...

... with a lot of supervision and management.

On the 31st, Ellie was more than excited to go to kindergarten in her Halloween-themed Hello Kitty shirt and Livi also got into the spirit of things dressed in a hand-me-down Halloween sleeper (thanks, Lauranell!). For a little fun, I found a printable Halloween-themed Bingo board and introduced Ellie to the game after school. She loved it -- the edible jelly bean bingo markers didn't hurt.

Seizing the opportunity, I got a Halloween photo of my girls. Livi's first Halloween -- she's completely thrilled.

That's better!

Trick-or-treating on base was on the agenda for that evening, although Ellie changed her mind twice during the course of the day about what she wanted to be. First she said she wanted to be Hello Kitty, and then Katerina Kittycat (also from Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood). Maybe next year, kiddo. I tried to find some face paint at several stores to make Ellie's tiger stripes with no luck. Some ingenuity and a little bit of moisturizer mixed with old brown eye shadow and we had some homemade tiger stripes! We packed sandwiches to eat in the car while we waited for Brian meet us after work. The weather couldn't have been better for the end of October in Germany -- I had brought Ellie's coat just in case, but she was able to get away without wearing it! 

I joked that having since Livi on me in the Moby Wrap, I was ten-months pregnant for Halloween. Ellie rocked it and trick-or-treated around the entire base. It's not the biggest one, but plenty big enough for a three-year-old!