Finally a moment to blog about Halloween. Peanut and I have been renting Little House after Little House from the local library. She loves the Ingalls' girls especially Laura. We have been reading the Little House books that were made for young children also. When I started thinking about what she could be for Halloween this year, it just made sense to have her be Laura. I talked with her about it and she was so excited! We picked out the fabric and I found a pattern and I set to work. I really did feel in over my head at times. My sewing expert is no longer just down the road (a.k.a. "Dobbie") so I just muddled my way through. I certainly wouldn't want a sewing expert to look at the dress or bonnet closely or even the apron for that matter. But the only thing that mattered was that Peanut loved it and beamed when I showed it to her. 
We got to "try it out" the week before Halloween at a local park family night. They held a trick or treat trail. We were put into small groups and assigned a leader. We followed a trail meeting some neat characters along the way such as Dora, Wonder Woman, Batman, the 3 Little Pigs, Cinderella, Snow White, Captain Hook, and Tinkerbell. The best one was Tigger and Winnie the Pooh...oh, how I wish you could have seen Peanut's face when she saw the beloved Winnie the Pooh standing before her. It was pure delight! She ran to the front of her group and gave him a hug and just grinned.
We also attended a costume party and pot luck put on by the Meet-Up group that I joined. Peanut had a ball playing with all of the other children and showing off her Laura attire. She got a goody bag full of treats...one of them being crazy teeth which I told her were lion teeth! ;)
Finally the BIG day came and it was.....COLD! Since the girls are getting over colds we opted to our trick or treating at the local mall. It certainly wasn't as nostalgic as walking outside in the crunchy leaves, but Peanut didn't seem to mind one bit. She scored a lunch pail full of candy (I found a metal pail for her to carry that kind of resembled Laura's lunch pail). She met Word Girl along the way and got to be a part of a costume contest. She didn't win and I am still bitter about that. They obviously didn't think about the hours and hours I put into her costume. Ha! I'm just kidding!
As we were strolling through the mall getting candy, we came upon Macy's and Dorothy from Wizard of the Oz was passing out the candy. She had her blue gingham dress on and two long braids. Peanut's face lit up and said, "Mommy, it's Laura Ingalls!" Heehee!
Peanut was very excited to wear her hair in braids for the trick or treat trail just like Laura does in the show. The next day we started watching the new season of Little House that I had rented and IMMEDIATELY Peanut saw that Laura no longer had her braids! She was heartbroken.
The other night Daddy and Peanut were being silly together and Daddy started blowing raspberries since Pumpkin was blowing them at him. He blurted out, "I have the 'Pumpkin's!" (Ok, he said her name but you know me and the code names.) So right away Peanut said, "I'll get Dr. Baker!" Too much Little House? ;)
And to close....
The other night we made homemade pizzas together. Each person had their own little crust and got to add the toppings (which only consisted of pepperoni and mozzerella...oh well). Peanut was over the moon to make her own pizza!
She even "washed" the dishes for me!
We painted pumpkins in honor of Halloween.
And we dug out a walker toy for Pumpkin. She is just bound and determined to get this walking thing down. I saw her push the toy and take some steps all by herself. She is something else!
-Mama
