Happy Halloween 2012!

Happy Halloween! 

I loved Halloween as a kid, especially all those years my Mom (and sometimes my Dad too!) would dress up with us. We'd spend hours figuring out our costumes, hair and makeup - and then it was all about the trick or treating! With family friendly neighborhoods, church trunk or treats and parties, and malls/downtown streets, we usually scored big in the candy department. When we were a bit older (well, as soon as I had figured out that I was the big sister in charge), we started our candy trading. Let's face it, I was rarely fair to my younger sisters - manipulating them by offering more of a less desirable candy for less of a far more desirable candy (Sixlets or cherry Tootsie Rolls for Reeses Peanut Butter Cups or Snickers). Ah, the good ol' days. I was pretty stoked for this year - although I'm far from a Halloween fanatic, I couldn't wait to dress Livi up (now that she loves to dress up) and take her trick or treating. A 2 year definitely understands the concept of taking and consuming as much candy as possible before Mom steps in and says "that's enough". I had planned to have Livi be Jessie from Toy Story 2 and 3; Toy Story 3 was her first favorite movie! She even received a Jessie red cowgirl hat for her birthday! However, her fascination with Woody and Buzz has started shifting to Disney princesses as of late - specifically Cinderella, Rapunzel, Snow White, and Alice (okay, so Alice isn't really a princess...but close enough). Couple her preference shift and my failure to get my act together to make a Jessie costume, and we ended up with one DARLING "Alice", thanks to my neighbor Emily whose daughter was Alice last year. 

We were super excited to have Aaron join us for our Halloween festivities, it's not often he can get off early from work. He makes one amazing Joker, but didn't have time to put himself together this year - he threw on his Teemo (League of Legends) hat, I wore my pregnant skeleton shirt and we were on our way for one great evening! We first went downtown Santa Monica and trick or treated along Montana Ave. It's an amazing downtown street for window shopping and dining. Most businesses participated and many went all out with costumes and decor. We loved the ambiance and seeing so many little goblins and princesses running around. Talk about fun. It was hilarious to see how it took Livi no time to figure out that as long as she was quick, she could grab a handful of candy rather than just one piece! She was far too cute of an "Alice" for anyone to turn her down. We also laughed at how for the first 6 blocks, she would only go for suckers! I think her Daddy must have had a talk with her before we started, he loves suckers. After a quick pep talk from her Mom, she remembered she's a chocolate lover, just like me. After all, one little 2 year old wasn't going to consume a bucket full of candy alone! We were grateful to have arrived at the start of the festivities, nearing the ends we could hardly walk down the sidewalks because of stroller and trick or treater traffic.

Her first Starbucks - vanilla bean creme (coffee free of course, can you imagine hundreds of kids running around full of coffee and candy?!)

After an hour or so of trick or treating and a bucket full of candy, we headed home to grab some quick dinner, empty Livi's bucket, and trick or treat around our apartment complex. Last year we had 8 or so kids running around, this year - only 3! Livi, her best buddy Liv Reynolds, and a darling 6 month old boy Liam. We have such kind and generous neighbors! Everyone oohed and aahed over the 3 kids. The girls helped themselves to massive quantities of candy (our neighbors were expecting more kids), and even ate some along the way. We emptied Liv's bucket once again and headed out to Riot Games for their trick or treating fun. We missed seeing the other kids because we got there later, but were happy to find lots of candy and friends to visit. Livi was the hit of the party, as usual. She loved all the attention, and the Rioters loved her. How could they not?

Livi and Liv Reynolds (there are 9 months between them).

I love that Liv is just goin' for that Butterfinger, wrapper and all. Livi took advantage of the fact Liv was distracted and loaded up the rest of the candy. Silly girls.

After a long hard night of trick or treating, Livi needed to relax and play a game of LOL at Riot before heading home. 

I was exhausted by the end of the evening, as was a sugar rushed Livi - and as soon as she was asleep, Aaron and I were sure to go through her candy and do a "quality check".