Halloween

As I said on Facebook this morning, I'd love to post a cute picture of my kid wearing a lion costume. But Rachel refused to put it on.

We had a fun Halloween, though. We joined Amy, her husband Greg and their kids Tony and Jake to go trick-or-treating in Multnomah Village, a really great neighborhood. Tony was an officer from the Clone Wars and Jake made a very cute Yoda, and Amy and Greg loaned me their umbrella stroller. It was an amazing feeling to walk around without hauling the huge BOB stroller we haven't gotten rid of, and Amy graciously offered to give us their stroller as soon as January is here. Yay!

The street was mobbed with kids in all kinds of cute outfits, adults too, and as Amy said -- it's great people-watching! It took us about an hour to get up and down the street and I noticed several cute stores that I am dying to go into and browse and (when Drew gets back and we have two incomes again) maybe buy things? For the house? I also noticed some really promising family-friendly restaurants; Drew and I are getting bored with the offerings in Northeast so maybe over his Christmas break we can explore that side of town.

After the trick-or-treating we ended up at Amy and Greg's. I drank a bit too much wine and was feeling very relaxed, which persisted on the drive home. At Amy's we had some chicken, a bit of pizza and I ate a salad. Rachel "played" with Tony and Jake. I always marvel how good they are with her, generously sharing their toys and really watching out for her. At one point Tony took her upstairs and made a "book" for her, which meant drawing her picture and writing her name, then stapling several pages together. He asked what her favorite color was, and when she said, "yeyow," he colored the balloon in her hand in the picture yellow. She was so entranced by that, she said last night: "I want Tony! I want Tony!" I had encouraged her before the visit to tell me how she would ask Tony to pick her up and she said very sweetly, "Tony, please pick me up!" But she never got a chance to say it.

When we got home she really didn't want any dinner -- I had been a Bad Mommy and let her eat candy when all she'd had that morning was breakfast -- but she ended up eating an orange and saying, "it's very juicy!" A couple of kids stopped by our house for trick-or-treating and Rachel helped hand out mini-Twix bars (after I placed two in her hand so it didn't look as if I was giving her candy away).

Her candy, by the way, is in her Halloween basket on my desk at work. So if any of you are near the Willamette University campus in the next few months and need some sugar, you know where to get your candy fix.

Happy Halloween! Now, on to Thanksgiving!