Halloween!

Okay, there are tons of pictures in this blog entry! But they were all so cute that I couldn't decide which ones to leave out, and believe me, there are plenty more on the flash drive that I did not choose to post!
This year, Abigail scored with costume selection. She has several Princess dresses, from birthday presents and hand-me-downs, and Frances realized that Abigail has a doll to match nearly every costume!

Abigail has the Tiana dress which matches the Cinderella rag doll, the Jasmine costume to match the rag doll, and she even has a red silk outfit (maybe from China, but more likely from a thrift store) that happened to match her Mulan barbie doll!

Aunt Linda invited us to go to the Family Musical Morning, Halloween edition, at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. The Pacific Symphony Orchestra played selections from scary movies, as each of the "movie monsters" checked in to the fictional "Hollywood Monster Mansion Hotel." We had a hard time finding a costume for Frances this year. There was nothing interesting at the thrift stores, so we re-used a knight costume from last year to go to the Performing Arts Center. For this event, Abigail wore her Sleeping Beauty dress, and brought along the matching doll!

We bought pumpkins several weeks before Halloween, but waited until the last minute to carve them, because of the heat. Yes, moldy pumpkins are definitely scary, but that wasn't really the look we were going for! Frances sketched some faces that she thought would be appropriate, and it was my job to do the corresponding carving! This year, Frances was a big help in separating all of the seeds, and then I cooked them in olive oil and garlic salt for Franny's favorite autumn snack.

About a week before Halloween, our neighbor brought over a Winnie the Pooh costume. Abigail loved it, but it was really too warm for Halloween in California. She did try it on, and carried it around the house with her for a few days.

We also picked up a few hats and things at the 99-cent store, including a hairband with attached braids, so we can see what Abigail might look like someday with more hair!

For the Halloween costume piano recital and trick-or-treating, Frances finally decided to be a cowgirl. She has some really nice boots that Aunt Judy & Uncle Mike gave her last Christmas, as well as a hat from some Western-themed birthday party. An orange and black plaid shirt completed the outfit. Abigail decided to dress up as Snow White (with, of course, the matching rag doll!). We had a good time trick-or-treating, but Abigail was frightened at a few houses. She wanted to go up to people's porches by herself (like a big girl) but finally consented to tightly gripping Fran's hand for moral support! One house in particular was just too scary, and I had to carry her back to "home base" (Lori & Phoebe's house in Old Towne Orange). Frances noticed that people were only giving single pieces of candy this year, instead of two or three at a time as in previous years. The economy is even affecting trick-or-treating. But it was still a fun night!