Halloween Parties & Pumpkin Carving

Last Saturday was our ward Halloween Party (they called it the Fall Carnival - but as far as I'm concerned - call it what you want but what it is is a Halloween Party). Anyway, we had a fun time. I helped run the primary booth (musical chairs) for the first half hour. It was fun to get to play with the kids. While I did that Aubrey and Jeff decorated a treat bag. Aubrey loved doing that. She got to put stickers on her bag and color it. She was so proud of it - she carried it around with her the rest of the night. Then we had some food and did the games with Aubrey. Her favorite game was the bean bag toss. Of course with her, there was no tossing involved. But, she loved putting the bean bags in the holes and then going to the prize bowl and getting a plastic spider! I think we should have dressed her up as a spider - she really likes them! I didn't bring my camera - but got a few pics from my friend Rachel.

Aubrey really liked Zoe's bear costume. She is pointing out the bee on it.

Monday night, was Jeff's work Halloween party. They had pumpkin carving & games & food. We had a really good time. We decided it might be too intense to try to carve the pumpkin there so we brought it home to carve. Aubrey really enjoyed the games at this party and running around the halls in her costume.

Making another treat bag - fun times for Aubrey

Loving the bean bag toss here as well!

Hooray for me - I got the bean bags in the mouth!

I took her around the cake walk - and she thought it was great fun.

Later in the night we were walking past the cake walk and she ran right in and did it herself!

Pinning the nose on the witch with daddy.

She had to help stroll the stroller w/ the pumpkin in it all the way to the car!

Tonight we carved Aubrey's Jack-O-Lantern. Right before we started I thought it would be fun to make it look like Aubrey. So I cropped a forward facing picture of Aubrey right on her face. Printed it to fit the 8.5 x 11 size paper and then traced her features. Then we used it as the template to carve the pumpkin. I decided the pumpkin version of Aubrey is definitely not as cute as the real deal, but it still turned out pretty cute.

Aubrey loved the whole experience. She helped clean it out. She helped poke the design onto the pumpkin. Then as I was carving she sat on my lap the whole time and continued poking with the poker. Then she had fun watching it all lit up in the dark. It was a real fun activity for all of us!

Cleaning out the guts!

This picture totally cracks me up. She was cleaning out the guts with dad and got some of it on her. She immediately withdrew her hands and started showing me that the guts got on it. She thought it was really yucky. Then when they were done cleaning it out - she started signing water. We went to the sink to get her sippy cup, but what she wanted was to wash her hands and arms because of the slim. A girl after my own heart - I absolutely hate cleaning out the pumpkin guts!

Poking out the Aubrey face design.

Poking away while mommy carves!

It's sooo much fun to carve pumpkins!

We're all done and she is still poking away at it!

What do you think - any resemblance to Aubrey?

The whole family!

The last couple of years we decided to carve the fake pumpkins because less mess and they last for years to come. So here are all of our pumpkin creations over the last few years.

Gotta have a cute one amongst all of the spooky ones!

Princess Tea Party

Last year for Halloween, Aubrey was Snow White. She was so chubby that she could fit in an 18 month costume (even though she was only 6 months). Well, she is still wearing 18 month size so I knew that costume would still fit. I was hoping that somewhere around town they would have a princess themed something that she could wear Snow White too. I couldn't find anything, so I decided to get out Aubrey's tea set that Grandma Buell gave her and have Zoe over for a princess tea party.

We weren't sure if they were quite old enough to enjoy a tea party - but boy were we wrong. They totally loved it. As soon as they saw those tiny little dishes they knew it was just for them. I think they also loved sitting at a table and not being strapped into high chairs. They were so cute!! The day before Aubrey helped me make Blueberry/Bannana mini muffins. So we had the muffins and strawberries. We just had water to drink- cause we figured there would be spills. They both loved the little tea cups. Aubrey had to hold it by the little handle (I don't know how she knew that was the way you are supposed to hold it). And she did so good drinking from the cup all by herself! Anyway, it was a really fun morning. Here are pics and videos.

On an entirely different note, I had to have a physical today and didn't want to take Aubrey. So, she went to play with Zoe. She has never gone to anyone's house without me. I wasn't sure how she would do. But, she did great! She did not cry at all. Hooray for Aubrey! We are making leaps and bounds in the clingy department. Also, 2 weeks ago, Jeff didn't have to sub in Nursery - so he left her by herself during the 3rd hour. She lasted until about 5 min. before it was over. Which I considered quite a victory. I thought it would be a long time before she would stay at all.

Pranksters

Jeff & his friend/co-worker Phil decided to go into work early yesterday and scare some of their co-workers. This was their first victim. It's pretty funny!

Photo Shoot - 18 Months

My awesome friend Amy Lindsey took Aubrey and her friend Zoe to the park and took pictures of them. They turned out so beautiful! She is just starting up a business - so if you like what you see you'll have to comment on her blog and make an appointment for yourself! Here is a link to a family photo shoot she did as well.

The girls had so much fun running and playing around the park while Amy followed them and took pictures. As usual, I had trouble narrowing them down to my favorites. When you see how many I put on the blog - you'll think I didn't narrow at all. But between Aubrey, Zoe & shots together - we ended up with 725 pics. So, really I narrowed quite a bit.

I am numbering them so Mom's & Dad's you can tell me what your favorites are and what size photo's you want. Also, siblings I am going to get some smaller and wallets printed so tell me your favorites as well!

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Best Buds

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Piggy Face

For those of you who love Aubrey's piggy face - these ones are for you!