Halloween

Ashilene had SO much fun celebrating Halloween this year.  She really loves Elmo from Sesame Street, so I was thrilled when I found this ADORABLE Elmo costume for a pretty good price at www.walmart.com.  You can’t really see it in this picture, but there is a picture of Elmo’s fish, Dorothy, on the skirt of the dress.  Ashilene LOVED wearing her Elmo costume.  It was pretty funny when Rojohn would say, “Hi Elmo!” to Ashilene, and she would reply, “I’m not Elmo!  This is a costume.”

I got the idea to paint pumpkins from one of my cousin’s and one of my friend’s blogs.  (Thanks Becca and Sarah!)  Ashilene loves painting, so I thought this would be really fun for her and it was!

The Friday before Halloween we were thrilled to be invited to the Halloween Party at the retirement center where my grandparents live.  Ashilene was a little unsure about the costume parade through the halls of the retirement center and really clung to me.  But she had a blast once we went outside to play parachute games.

She was in awe of the exotic birds in the Happy Birds show and even volunteered to hold one of them, but chickened out at the last minute, so the parrot got to perch on Mommy’s arm instead.

 

 

Ashilene thoroughly enjoyed having fun and spending time with Great Grandma Ardie, but by the end of the party, she was completely tuckered out. 

The Saturday before Halloween, I was in charge of our Ward Halloween Party.  We advertised it as a “Pizza & Pumpkins Party”.  We encouraged everyone to bring a pizza or two to share and we provided salad and soda.  Our bishop’s pumpkin garden was very bountiful this year and he donated about 50 pumpkins that the Primary children got to decorate at the activity.  In the past we’ve usually had a Trunk or Treat, but this year we put each auxilliary in charge of decorating a classroom along one of our hallways.  Most of the auxiliaries went all out and I was super impressed with all they did to decorate their rooms.  All the Primary kids had a ton of fun “Hallway Trick or Treating”.  Overall I was pleased with how the activity turned out and I was very grateful to have my friend, Jen, there.  Jen babysits Ashilene on the days I go in to work and she was able to help a lot with Ashilene at the activity, while I was trying to take care of various details.  Ashilene loves Jen!

On Halloween, we made cookies to deliver to our neighbors.  Ashilene was thrilled when many of them gave her candy in return!

Later that evening we met up with her cousin, Kaylana, to go trick or treating in their neighborhood.  This was the first year we took her out trick or treating.  At the first house, she walked right in when they opened the door!  Towards the end, when her little legs started getting tired, she loved getting a shoulder ride from Daddy.

I experienced so much JOY this Halloween watching Ashilene have SO much fun with the many festivities.  I want to finish off this post with some pictures of her and her cousin, Kaylana.  When Riesel and I were trying to get pictures of them together in their cute costumes, they just wanted to play with their dolls.  They have SO much fun together.  I am SO glad that we live close!

Oh how I love these precious girls!