Sunday, November 9, 2014

Halloween!

I honestly do not know how many times I was asked "Mama, when Halloween coming?" this year. I think I lost count after about 100. I'm not joking. My kid was extremely excited about Halloween. I don't know how since we don't really put too much focus on the holiday. I don't go all out decorating. The only decorations were little window decals that my mother picked up for Emilie at the dollar store (that may or may not still be on the front door...). Even our door decoration is fall focused instead of some witch or goblin.

Regardless we had one very excited little girl on our hands. All she could talk about was going trick or treating, getting treats and getting dressed up like Rapunzel.

Here is a picture  of Emilie on the big night:
Yeah, not so much with the Rapunzel. She had a meltdown when I dared to make her wear a pair of pants and a jacket under the dress. The nerve!

So as a last resort she ended up wearing her cupcake costume from last year. Thankfully it still fit, and bonus it has a matching fleece hat and pants so she was super cozy.

But lets rewind a bit.

We had originally bought two pumpkins at the pumpkin patch. Two big ones. One started to decompose all over the back patio, so that left us with one.

This was the first year that she actually wanted to help us clean it out.

That was until she realized that she would get dirty while cleaning it out.

I had fears that she would want an elaborate Disney Princess based design. Her request? A happy face. She chose the shape of the eyes, nose and mouth and we got to carving. She helped to poke out the pieces.

She loved her pumpkin.

The day before Halloween she went to our friend Bev's house while we were at work. While she was with "Bevie" they carved me a pumpkin. She was so excited to bring her other little pumpkin home with her. Here are our two happy pumpkins.

On Halloween she was so excited. Then it came time to get ready. She is used to wearing her Rapunzel costume just as a dress so she was not impressed that she needed to wear an outfit underneath, but we live in Canada and it gets cold on Halloween.

After refusing to wear a costume at all Andre suggested her cupcake costume from last year. Thankfully it still fit so she got dressed and we were ready to go!

It had threatened a downpour of rain that day but thankfully it was just misting and she really enjoyed herself. About halfway through trick or treating she kept asking to go to Bevie's house so we walked over and Bev had a special little treat just for her. Emilie's favourite a Kinder Egg (for those in the States it's a hollow chocolate egg filled with a plastic egg with a little toy inside). She gave Bevie a hug and then we were off to walk down the street to her daycare.

On the way back Emilie told me that she had too much candy, and wanted to go home and have her "Kindergarten Egg" and some milk. So we walked home and she did just that :)

I hope everyone else had a great Halloween!

From the Archives: Easter in our house

**After publishing the post on the Pumpkin Patch I found this post that I had written months ago about Easter, but never published, so here you go!**

Before we knew it, it was Easter. This year is flying by!

Last year a friend of mine invited us to join her and her family for her town's Easter Egg Hunt. We went and even though the girls didn't really get the hunt, they had fun. This year everyone was a year older, and they definitely knew what was going on. My sister and her family went to the hunt this year as well as more friends of ours. It was a lot of fun for all the kids, young and not so young. 


Emilie's cheese face.

Emilie and Josh, partners in crime.

Someone got a little camera shy while Papa snapped some pictures of us together.

Showing Papa her haul.

She needed to sit in the middle of the field and taste test.
Thankfully this year I was feeling much better than last year so I was able to actually snap some pictures. Andre and I really try our best with each holiday to really get across the true meaning of the holiday. We have quite a few books about Christmas, which Emilie loves, but I was at a loss about how to handle Easter. I just felt that explaining the Crucifixion of Christ was just a little too much for a three year old to handle. So we decided to let Sunday School handle that issue this year and just focus on the fun aspect this year. Next year I plan on doing a little more research and try to find some age appropriate stories/activities at home as well. Anyone have any suggestions?

The Easter Bunny left Emilie's little basket in the livingroom and also some chocolate eggs hidden around the house for Emilie to find. It was so funny to see her run out in the hall and see the trail of eggs on the stairs. She thought the Easter Bunny was very silly!




A few weeks before Easter Emilie had gone shopping at Target with Carrie and my mom. We love checking out the dollar and $5 sections and this trip was no different. Emilie came home talking about this Doc McStuffins camera and how she wanted the Easter Bunny to bring it for her. I had totally forgotten about it until shopping the Thursday before Easter and I saw it. I figured why not, and bought it for her basket.

On Easter morning Emilie came running into our room, sat on the bed and let out a long sigh. "Welp (her way of say welllll). I don't think the bunny will bring my camera. ::sigh:: He bring it next time"

We went downstairs and she was so happy to find the camera in her Easter basket. Mom Easter Bunny for the win! She had to line up all of her new jammies on the floor and snap pictures of everything with her "camera".

We finished off the day with a big Easter dinner at our place. The weather was so beautiful and sunny that afternoon. Emilie's favourite part of the dinner was the ham. Our girl get not get enough of it.

It was a long day full of activity (and chocolate) and the night ended with me having to rock her to sleep.

Fall Adventures at the Pumpkin Patch

When Emilie was born we I became a little bit obsessed with trying to create traditions around the holidays. I don't really know why. My family was never big on traditions. Routines yes, but not so much with traditions. Andre loves holidays and any excuse to do fun things as a family to mark the holidays, so thankfully he has been on board with my obsession.

We started Emilie's first with just a trip to an apple farm not far from home to pose for some cute pictures and pick up a pumpkin. The next year was when the fun really started with a trip to a local pumpkin patch. Emilie loved the wagon ride and choosing a pumpkin. We went to the same farm two years in a row, but now that she is older and enjoys more activities we decided to visit a bigger farm with more activities.

It was a little bit more expensive, but she had a great time. They had a pumpkin patch, a wagon ride of the property, a hay barn, animals, corn maze...you get the picture!







As you can tell from the pictures her favourite thing to do that day was play in the hay barn. We could not tear her away. We got home that night and she was standing there wiggling her little bum and I asked her what was wrong. She started laughing and said "I have hay in my pants!". It was literally everywhere!

I tend to be behind the camera most of the time on days like this, but I did manage one "usie" of Emilie and I on the wagon ride.


 


After all of the excitement of the afternoon we stopped off at the little coffee shop and grabbed some hot apple cider and a little snack. Emilie loved her first taste of "warm apple juice".

It had been so difficult finding a day to go that wasn't raining and we really had a perfect day. We all dressed in layers and by the end of the trip Emilie had shed her hat, mitts and jacket and just played in her fleece. It was the perfect fall day. 

She is already talking about getting her pumpkin next year!