Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from Tess!

Tess had fun trick or treating... well, at least until she got to the first house and our neighbor was wearing a pretty scary mask. Tess was not expecting that. Needless to say, she was pretty gun-shy from there on out. At each house, we had to be sure to point out that it was a "happy house."
Note to self: next year, we start across the street and make our way back versus starting at the scary-mask-next-door-neighbor's-house.

Norman had fun too! He even managed to squeak out a couple treats for himself along the way.

Minnie Mouse!

"Here I am!"
Minnie and her turtle
Minnie after being influenced by Papa
Norman the Happy Turtle

Family pic

Tess and Papa

Tess with Grandma, Meena & Mom

Even though Tess got some pretty good loot (including a full-size Butterfinger!!) she was most excited with all of the dum-dum suckers she got. What an easy kid to please.

And here are a few pics from Friday night when we carved our pumpkins at home:

Another swimming champion!

Tess finished another session of swimming this morning. This time, she got a certificate and a rubber duck. OH - and a dum-dum sucker, which she was of course most excited about. She couldn't have cared less about the duck... it was sucker time.

Zoo Boo!

Tess - oops, I mean Minnie Mouse - had a fun time with her buddies Avery (the bee) and Matthew (the construction worker) at the Zoo Boo tonight. Lots of candy and fun! (And not too many zoo animals... they must have been scared away by all of the sugar-hyped kids. In fact, I think the only real animal that we saw was a wild bunny that just happened to be in the grass by the trail.)

I think we are getting the whole "trick or treat" process down to a science... just in time for Halloween!

Back at work!

Halloween preview!

Here is the official debut of Tess' Halloween costume!

Getting ready...

Tonight, Tess enjoyed helping Daddy paint Baby Sister's new bedroom. She was pretty excited to put on her 'paintin' clothes' and grab a brush and help out. She actually stayed and helped out for a few hours! Daddy was so lucky to have such great help. Surely, it cut his work time in half. Ha.

Happy Birthday to Daddy!

Today is Daddy's birthday! Tess has enjoyed celebrating Dad's birthday today. (Except, I think I made the mistake of telling her that it was going to be his birthday too many days in advance because at every turn, she has been looking for his birthday cake.)

To prepare, Tess had fun making a sign for Dad and she has also served as the official balloon coordinator. This morning, we went to the cider mill with some friends and ate lots of warm donuts and drank cider. Yum. Tess also got a chance to feed the goats and she even went on a pony ride!! Surprisingly, she really liked it. (See the video below.)

So, Happy Birthday to Daddy! We love you.

Just the three (well, make that four) of us

Feeding the baby goat some goat food in an ice cream cone!

Tess eating some food of her own... YUM!

Daddy and his girl

Cowgirl Tess. Yeehaw!
The cowgirl in action:

Monster Mash!

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Pumpkin Time (again)!

We took our annual trip to the pumpkin patch tonight! Tess was all about the baby pumpkins. Every time we tried to steer her towards a larger one, she shot it down saying that it was "too big!" So Mom and Dad bought a couple of normal size pumpkins, while Tess picked one that was just her size.

To take a stroll down memory lane, you can look back on Tess' 2008 pumpkin time adventure here.

The 2009 edition of the "pumpkin time" pic:

And a look back at the 2008 version:

What happened to that baby girl?!