Meet my friend...Strawberry Shortcake!

Grace has been crazy about Strawberry Shortcake ever since her halloween costume arrived in the mail. SS is now her tag along buddy. Whispering secrets to SS and giving her a little smooch :) Watching Dora while holding SS - think Dora is jealous? It's not everyday that Grace gets to hang out with Papa A.J. because of his work, but when she does, she is over the moon happy! Ready, set, GO! "Again, again!" We feel blessed that Grace has her grandparents nearby. She loves her Mimi & Pop and Noonie & Papa A.J. and talks about them all the time :)

Homemade Goodness

Grace and I have been busy putting together some yummy trick or treat bags full of homemade goodies for her classmates. This weekend, we were able to get a little practice in by making Chocolate Ghost Cakes (Southern Living - Oct, 2008) for our annual neighborhood fall fest. Boy, am I glad we did a trial run! Now I know to wait quite a bit longer for the frosting to harden than what the recipe calls for before piping it on to the chocolate squares. Some of our ghosts turned out a little spookier than others :). Nevertheless, we had so much fun with lots of finger tasting along the way! Ooooh, check that one out! Mmmm, mmmm, Good! Mama, I think I'm ready to do it by myself :) So proud of our treats! A close up of our little spooky friends! (these are the ones that stayed home with us :)
Neighborhood Fall Fun Fest ~ we had fun meeting new neighbors and visiting with old friends. And later, Grace enjoyed some fun time with Noonie and Papa A.J. who stopped by to say hello And finally, getting ready for some pumpkin carving fun...more pictures to come!

No stage fright here!

Who knew a mini pumpkin patch at the outlet shops = a performing stage! Grace quickly found her way on top of the crates and into the middle of the pumpkins where she wasted no time breaking into her own rendition of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". Twinkling away... Quite the little charmer, huh? She definitely made some older ladies smile who stopped by to clap for her - so sweet!

Countdown to Candy!

Amy Atlas

I love candy day!!! Just over two weeks now - can't wait!

Outfitting the little pumpkin with a halloween costume has been quite a challenge this year. Two costumes down and now FINALLY we have one that she'll wear.

First there was Elmo, her favorite furry monster...until I tried one on at Target before ordering the one she had picked out in a magazine. Boy, am I glad I did - she did not like sticking her head in it at all! She went bezerk! Something like this...
Then came the most adorable candy corn costume - which I was really excited about since it was incredibly cute and sweet (did I mention cheap? :), we already had the perfect orange polka-dotted Puddle Jumpers to wear with it and I only needed to find her some yellow/orange striped tights and we would be set...or so I thought. Nope, tried it on her one night and she pitched a huge fit over having something over her head. She refused to stick her head out of the opening and just pulled it off as quickly as she could. I guess my poor baby was feeling claustrophobic :(

So finally, I found a sweet Strawberry Shortcake costume complete with an adorable patchwork apron and some cute green striped knee socks. Plus it came with a strawberry shaped treat bag AND a strawberry shortcake doll...ah, the memories! It's halloweeny without being too costumey, so I think it's perfect. I think I'll even paint on some little freckles - he, he, he. Maybe she can even use it to play dress up after halloween is over.

So in honor of Candy Day, here are some of my favorite treats. These are all from Etsy, so that makes them even better in my book - I love to support little independent boutiques and their handcrafted wares. In this day and age of sweatshops and toxic kid products, feels good to buy handmade! :)

Happy Halloween Knot Dress by Little Daisy Designs Trick or Treat Hair Clippies by Details, Inc.
Harvest Pumpkin Hair Clippie by Pammydawn Candy Corn Beanie Hat by Gigglegum Owl Clippie by Maya Kapaya Candy Corn Soap by Smokey Mountain Scents Spooky Treats Personalized Stickers by Littlebeane Boutique Spooktacular Cupcake Pincushion by SmarmyPants Cottage Sweet Halloween Picks by Pinkbuttercreme Larger than Life Candy Corn Cookies by Cakebox Cookies Girls Halloween Kitchen Apron by Brody and Ma
And my absolute favorite:
Halloween Felt Sugar Cookies by Sugar Chic Baby !! Happy (early) Boo Day!

New doggie barrette...new books...how fun!

I've been trying to teach Grace about rewards and how some things are treats and not just something we automatically get no matter what. I know she's still little, but better now than later, right? :) She now understands that if she helps me pick up the play room, we can have extra time to read books (her fave activity). So today, I decided it was time for a treat - a couple of new books, so off we went to Barnes & Noble (one of her favorite places). She got the point about the new books being a special treat - she kept saying "new book tweet for Grace", but not the part about picking one or two - she wanted them all!

Getting ready after naptime...checking out her new favorite barrette - a little scottie dog (thanks, Angel!!) Giving me pouty lips (she's been doing this since she was little bittie :) Mama, I don't want to let it go, but I do want it in my hair!!! (tantrum averted...luckily there were two barrettes in the set) Wow, there are a lot of books here! I think I'll pick between these (notice Dora is now a popular character at our house) But wait a minute, here's a little bunny I like Okay, okay (a new expression she likes to say) I promise no more books after this - wink, wink ;) Caught trying to sneak in a few more books to the stack We finally went home with the Dora pumpkin book and this sweet book! ...and a little treat for me - he, he, he

Pumpkin Patch #2

So we're crazy about pumpkin patches around here! And yup, we still have one more we like to visit :) Since my goddaughter Madeline was born five years ago, Heidi and I have made it our little tradition to go to the pumpkin patch every year. This year, we had one special little pumpkin addition so it was extra special.

Introducing Ella Kate...Isn't she a cutie?!?! Big sis Madeline sitting pretty I found the perfect pumpkin! Wow, this one is heavy !!(and funny looking, in a Cinderella kind of way) There's something about this one I just don't like. I don't know what it is, but I don't like it. Scarecrow Madeline Madeline, where are you? Silly girlies Such fun times! I regret that we were not able to get a pic of all three girls together, but Grace was too busy running around to take time out for a group pic. Oh, well, there's always next year...who knows maybe God will bless us with another little pumpkin at next year's patch :)