Happy Halloween, Y'all!

Yes, Happy Halloween to all Y'all from Cowgirl Abbey!

On her horse, Sakura, with her Cowgirl Bear.

I love that Abbey wanted to be a cowgirl. In a world full of princesses, fairies and High School Musical cheerleaders, she definitely stood out! And it didn't hurt that the costume was inexpensive and easy for her creativity-impaired mother. Elliott did not want to be anything, except "Finding Nemo." I had no idea how to go about making her into Nemo and was not about to try and purchase such a costume, so she was the Easter Bunny because that did not involve wearing a jacket (which she doesn't like) or a hat (ditto). She did wear the bunny ears and tail most of the time, and carried her Easter basket. You can also watch the video clip in the previous post to see why I thought she would be a perfect bunny.

Cowgirl Abbey and the Easter Bunny

The week before Halloween, we went to a Trunk or Treat at our church. It was our first time to one of these and was a lot of fun. Chad took the girls to the bounce house, a cupcake walk, games and face painting.

Ready for action. The cowgirl hat kept blowing off but she is still pretty cute!

I didn't get to do any of the fun things with them because I was running a game. It was fun and I was glad to help, but it was exhausting! Really all I had to do was crowd control and pick up the plastic stars after the kids attempted to throw them in a bucket, but two hours of up and down is hard on an old lady like me. :0)

Explaining the finer points of throwing stars into a bucket while my little helpers look on.

This is when we were still having fun... as soon as we drove out of the parking lot Elliott started screaming and it was no longer fun.

Abbey participated in the costume parade at her school. There were lots of cute costumes, including a teacher dressed as Dora the Explorer, but again, no other cowgirls!

She was shy during the parade but talked about it later like it was fun.

Finally, Halloween! Also known as the holiday that I cared nothing about until I had cute children to dress in costumes. For the first time ever we put up a few decorations on the front door (all made by Abbey) and left some candy in a bowl outside our front door. (Yes, I admit it! I have always been that parent who doesn't hand out candy! In my defense we have not taken just a whole lot of candy from our neighbors. Does that make it better?) First we went to a little carnival on base with our friends.

Cowgirl Abbey and Princess Mulan in their covered wagon/rickshaw.

The Easter Bunny and Lightning McQueen's Driver were also excited.

I love these kids!

We did a little trick-or-treating on the way home. As you can see, Elliott's costume didn't last that long.

Elliott got excited about getting candy, but fortunately hasn't noticed that I threw most of it away.

As a kid, Halloween was about just being silly and enjoying dressing up with my brothers and friends. Even though I am not crazy about all the candy, and I can't BELIEVE some of the inappropriate costumes people let their kids wear (I'm talking to you, Doctor Covered in Blood and Fishnet Stocking Witch), it's fun to start making memories like that with the girls.

The end.