October Festivities 2009

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Although this is our second Halloween to celebrate with Gracie it really feels special because she is enjoying so many things so much more than she did last year. We have done a lot of fun halloween crafts and decorated the house with pumpkins, spiders, frogs and lights. She asks me every day to turn on the halloween lights and talks about pumpkins non-stop. She has been wearing a little halloween outfit that I bought for her and if she had her way she would wear it every day. She now says "cute" so she always wants to wear her "cute" clothes with her sparkly shoes or "walkin' shoes" as she calls those and her rain boots.

We took Gracie to the pumpkin patch last weekend. There are so many patches around here, but we found an adorable one about 20 minutes from here that had a kids play place, hayride and a little country store inside the barn. It was freeeeeezing that day so we opted out for the hayride and instead chose a pumpkin that was close to the barn. Gracie chose her own mini pumpkin and never let it go the whole time we were there. Tracy chose a really big pumpkin and cleaned it off to take home. They were selling pumpkin donuts, jams, and lots of other produce so we picked up some tasty treats and enjoyed our donuts the next day. It is so amazing to watch Gracie doing new things. She has so much joy and excitement in her tiny little body and she shows every bit of it. She loved the pumpkin patch and wanted to stay longer than the cold would allow.
After the pumpkin patch Tracy took "the girls" to a restaurant in Plain City, OH called Der Dutchmen. They had an amazing bakery there that definitely competes with our Floyd, VA favorite, the amish bread store. We ate a tasty dinner and bought some yummy apple fritters to take home with us.

Tonight we took Gracie to our ward's halloween party. So much yummy chili, cornbread, cookies and homemade rootbeer...mmm..We had a freak show too and saw a very different side of many of our church friends! We saw everything from someone blowing spit bubbles to neck farting. There was a costume contest and of course Gracie was a ladybug. She ran around trying to take off her costume much of the time and squealed and laughed at all the "freaks" in the show that was put on. There was also a trunk or treat following the festivities but we opted out and took Gracie home for bed..as it was getting pretty late and she was screaming for an Elmo treat bucket that she found in the cultural hall. We pried it from her candy covered fingers and headed home. It was late so she skipped the nightly bath and went to sleep with the remnants of a spider tatoo on her face...

The seasons and holidays are so much more fun with our little Gracie! We will post more pictures after our Halloween party next week!