Fall and Halloween

Fall is a time for leaves. Really, really big leaves. The kids went out for a hike around their daycare and collected lots of leaves, which of course had to come home with us. Where they sat on the counter until it was time to rake up the leaves, at which point we raked them up with all the rest. I've ended up ordering gardening tools for the kids (rake, hoe, shovel) so that they can both help, since they were arguing over who got the red broom (as opposed to the yellow one). Now they have matching, identical tools, so I'm sure they'll still find something to argue about!

They actually are quite helpful. They raked leaves, they fell into piles of leaves, they helped turn the dirt over, they ran screaming up and down the driveway...

One of the joys of being back in St. Louis is the zoo. We went down while Grandma was here, just before Halloween, and wandered around looking at all the Halloween decorations. We took Molly, too. We rode on the carousel, saw the baby elephant, ate popcorn, slid down the slide in the play area, and got faces painted. Well, Ian didn't, but the girls did. Ian did not take a nap. So he was getting a bit fractious on the way home, but other than that in pretty good spirits.

The girls spent quite a lot of time walking around on top of the rock wall surrounding the eating area. Ian decided to try, too, but he needed a bit more help.

Isabella's day care had a slumber party day where they watched Happy Feet, complete with sleeping bags. I really enjoyed not having to get Isabella into clothes before she left the house... how one girl can take 25 minutes to get on one pair of tights, a dress, and a pair of shoes, I really don't know. At least there isn't so much of an argument over her new jacket (it is *not* a coat, so she keeps telling me).

Ian has his new, big jacket, and his new shoes. Having watched his sister, he now complains about the big jacket (mommy, too big!), the shoes (mommy, shoes too big), and getting dressed (mommy, no want pants, wear spaceship! [pjs]). He at least doesn't complain too much about the gloves...

And, of course, the other good thing about St. Louis is the Magic House. We've been several times, once for Isabella's b-day party. This is one of Calin's shirts (?) that worked pretty well as a dress. After much screaming and wailing because the two things she wanted to wear were in the laundry, and nothing else was "right". Sigh. If only she could wear princess dresses all the time, we'd be fine.

Halloween ended up being a pretty low-key affair. We went over to Molly's, and were joined by Morgan, who use to be their next-door neighbor. Around the block we went, trick or treat! I was amazed by the girl's ability to tell jokes - they've been doing them for several weeks at day care. So when people asked for jokes (a St. Louis thing) they had no problem telling them. Isabella was "Sleeping beauty princess", Molly was "fire-person princess", and Megan was Dorothy. Oddly, after about 20 minutes there was a need for a potty break, the girls ran off for home, and decided that playing dress up was more fun than getting more candy. Go figure. But at least it kept the candy count down...

Ian got to go trick-or-treating twice, once at North campus and once in the evening. Isabella was *very* upset that he had candy in his bucket before she got some, and was demanding he put it back. Ian, of course, was having nothing of it. Although in the end, he didn't really end up liking a lot of it. The Smarties were a big hit, along with the M&Ms, the chocolate bars so-so, and no real interest in the lollipops, milk duds, skittles... At first he wouldn't share, but by the end of the week they were both sharing their candy with each other and us, which was very sweet. For a few days, though, I had to deal with Ian demanding candy from the moment he woke up until he fell asleep. Lots of screaming otherwise. I caved and started letting them have some after school, after dinner, before bed-time, if only to get them to finish it all off...

Isabella still fits in the bunny costume. Pretty amazing.