"M-I-C-K-E-Y...M-O-U-S-E"

I went back and forth on whether to title this post, "I Want Candy" or "M-I-C-K-E-Y...M-O-U-S-E," but settled on highlighting Carly's first year of dressing up rather than focusing on the fact that my child is totally and utterly addicted to candy!  What did I do wrong!? ;)  Ok...yes, her sitting in a real pumpkin totally counts as dressing up last year...but she certainly didn't get to prance around in it door to door gathering candy!  Brian & I would agree that Carly has three favorite characters: Minnie, Pooh Bear & Jessie.  So, when it came time to pick a costume, I went with who she's liked the longest, the most feminine and the least expensive.  Unfortunately, there are next to zero songs written about Minnie, so her counterpart will have to do as the song title of choice for this post. :)

But before we get too far into talking about festivities, I wanted to share some beautiful fall photos I was able to take of her the other day...and compare to last year's pumpkin shoot.  I think a tradition has begun!  I texted Brian that I got pumpkin pictures of Carly and his response was, "in a pumpkin or next to?"  Hehe...he didn't particularly love the naked baby in a pumpkin thing, so was delighted when this is what I showed him:

She's changed so much in a year, but her face, smile & eyes are still my little Carly.  She's a beautiful little girl.

This week has been full of "fall festivities!"  First up was our neighborhood fall festival held outside one of our clubhouses.  It was FABULOUS!  We didn't get to stay too terribly long because we wanted to get back to the house for lunch, a nap and Cyclone Football, but the time there was purely enjoyable.  The invite said to wear your costume, so I figured Carly might as well get some use out of it.  She was more than thrilled to be dressed like Minnie, so much so that she even left that headband on the whole time!  Our first stop was a bounce house for toddlers which happened to be themed to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  She must have been in there for 20-30 minutes.  She. Loved. It.

Then we went over to the DJ where there was a bubble machine and she did some dancing.  We met the cutest two-year-old Dalmatian and the had fun dancing together. Her mommy and I happen to be only a month a part with our second babies so we decided we should be friends.  The girls had their first play date on Tuesday morning and enjoyed one another! 

The second fall festival we attended was at Harvest Bible Chapel of Orlando...a church just down the road from us.  I actually wasn't able to go because I was asked to cover a shift at work, but here's some photos from Brian & Carly's fun evening that I begged him to take!  They went on a hayride, took her pumpkin for some trick-or-treating and played in more bounce houses!

And finally, last night we let her go trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. I had been given the advice to have one parent take her out and one stay at the house, so although we really wanted to go as a family, we knew it was best for us to divide and conquer. We probably handed out 75 pieces of candy (although we gave some kids two pieces each) and Carly came home with a PUMPKIN full of candy!  She got the hang of what she was suppose to do and was more than excited to knock on doors and take candy.  She said "trick or treat" each time, nodded her head as her thank you (she hasn't figured out how to say that yet) and would wave while saying, "bu-bye" each time.  Carly would frequently put her hand back in the bowl for more candy after her initial grab and each time as I told her no the person handing out candy would say, "oh she's so cute she can have as much as she wants!"  Hence why we ended up with such a full bucket...

We had a really nice time...definitely a memorable first trick-or-treat.  We lasted about an hour before she had a melt down because she couldn't carry her pumpkin anymore due to its weight.  She was so sad I don't think I've ever seen her melt down like that before.  So I scooped her up and bribed her to let me carry her by giving her candy.  She had 4 pieces last night and was bouncing off the walls!  The next 45 minutes she helped us hand out candy and LOVED sprinting to the door when the door bell would ring.  That was fun, too.  Here's my little Minnie Mouse!

Carly was carting her candy all over the house when she got home...and was pleased to show me what she had in her pumpkin! 

We had a nice time taking part in the fall traditions that our culture seems to have.  Although I've always thought Halloween was the dumbest thing on the face of the planet, it was fun to see the joy Carly got from dressing up, attending fall themed festivals and collecting a fine assortment of Candy.  Glad we are onto November...much more fun to be had! :)