halloween 2016

Fairies and Tinkerbell: Meredith’s First Halloween

November 13, 2016 by Rebecca Whitehead

Halloween is over. Can I get an, “Amen”?

This year, the girls decided early on that they wanted to be fairies for Halloween after Aunt Annie handed down some cute fairy costumes her twins wore for a fairy birthday party one time. I stashed the costumes away for a few months so that when Halloween rolled around, the girls wouldn’t be sick of them. My tactics worked. I dug around my craft supplies to make their fairy crowns, hot glued fake moss and butterflies onto some old shoes they barely fit in anymore and found a YouTube Fairy Princess makeup tutorial… voila! Fairies!

After the girls decided to be fairies, I planned on Meredith being Tinkerbell and lucked out since my friend had a Tinkerbell costume which fit Meredith perfectly. I couldn’t resist picking up some Tinkerbell fairy shoes at the Disney Store, which was my one splurge. The little pom poms and jingle when you shook the shoes kept Meredith occupied, and regardless, I loved them! While I happily put the rest of our Halloween decor and costumes away in storage on November 1, Meredith’s Tinkerbell shoes on her dresser remain the lone vestige from Halloween.

I had originally planned on a Peter Pan theme, and a Tiger Lily costume for myself, but decided I had to be standing right next to Jake and Meredith or else my costume didn’t fit in, especially with the twins (thanks to the girls’ preschool party which served as kind of a dress rehearsal for helping me figure that out!) So, last minute, I dug out whatever green clothes I already had, got some green tights and wings, made myself a flower crown and transformed into a woodland fairy. I wish I had thought of doing a Midsummer Night’s Dream theme earlier on… I would have paid money to see Jake in a Puck costume.

For Peter Pan, thank you, Amazon, for the hat and tights… fortunately, he agreed to wear them.

The grump face in blue is Samantha and the one with the five-foot pout in pink is Amelia.

Family costumes in prior years:

This was the first year the girls picked out their own costumes and they proudly told anyone who would listen what they were going to be all month. Meredith, of course, didn’t have a choice, but loved her shoes and wings. She made the most squeezable Tink! I have to say, however; my favorite costumes so far have been the year Grammy made them Madeline costumes.

2014:

2013-2016:

Meredith 2015 and 2016:

The twins were so excited for Halloween all month, so much so, that the month seemed to drag by and I got sick of hearing, “Is it time to go trick or treating yet?” While the girls had fun on their Halloween field trip, they kept asking when it was time to get in their costumes and trick or treat, to the point that I had to threaten not going trick or treating that night if they asked again.

Although we had picked out pumpkins weeks before, we Jake didn’t carve them until the day of. After browsing Google Images, Samantha picked out a cat and Amelia picked out a creepy two-faced ghoul. To each their own.

After pumpkin carving and scrounging for dinner (our pizza order ended up being 2.5 hours late and we were starving!), it was finally time.

But wait… first pictures! The twins were not pleased and alternated between humoring me and doing the ultimate pout faces. Despite my last-minute hot glue touch-ups, the moss just did not want to stay put on their fairy shoes as the girls were running around. Oh well. From far away it still looked cool!

Pan and Tink.

Please just humor me.

At least Meredith is almost always game for pictures.

“All the world needs is a little faith, trust and pixie dust.” -Tinkerbell

Fly away, Tink!

Two grumpy fairies and a happy Tink.

SERIOUSLY, THERE’S NOT GOING TO BE ANY CANDY LEFT AT THIS POINT IF YOU DON’T STOP TAKING PICTURES.

Glow sticks!

Our neighbors set up a throw the spider on the sticky web game the twins loved and then it was time to hit the streets. Our neighborhood is full of little kids and young families, which makes staying local for trick or treating all the more fun. we met up with our friends and caravanned around the neighborhood with them, mostly hitting up the houses that had the non-scary decor. Some houses went all out and were a little too PG-13 for the kids, complete with electric chairs, screaming sounds, and chain saws. We stuck with the blow-up frankensteins and smiling ghosts.

It’s normally warm, if not downright scorching with Santa Ana winds to boot, this time of year, and I usually plan the girls’ costumes accordingly. This was the one year it was actually a tad chilly outside, and the girls wanted to wear sweaters, effectively covering up their costumes. Oh well.

After an hour, the twins were winding down and Amelia kept tripping, spilling her candy all over the sidewalk every time. Meredith had been camped out in the Ergo during trick or treating, and while she was excited by all the sights and sounds at first, her eyes were glazed over by the end of the night. Time to head home. The twins chose a piece of candy to eat on the walk home and we barely had time to wipe off their makeup before they conked out, an hour past bedtime.

Unlike last year, the candy fairy did not make an appearance. In an effort to let loose, I let the twins choose one piece of candy each afternoon to eat, which had the unforeseen, but happy consequence of them keeping busy every day dumping out all their candy, asking what each one was and comparing their loot with each other. Pretty soon, they’ll be trading, I’m sure. After three days of being excited to choose a candy, they completely forgot about the whole thing and never brought it up again.

Addison, Jadyn, Samantha, Amelia and the lone boy, Nate.

I was proud to overhear the twins talking while choosing which candy to eat one day and heard Amelia inform Samantha that, “Candy doesn’t have vitamins and we only eat it on holidays and special times.” Brainwashing at its finest!

Lots of love,

Filed Under: Halloween Tagged With: carving pumpkins, fairies, halloween 2016, Meredith's first Halloween, peter pan, tinkerbell, trick or treating

Samantha and Amelia’s First Field Trip

November 13, 2016 by Rebecca Whitehead

On Halloween, Samantha and Amelia had the most exciting adventure of their lives… a ride on a REAL school bus. Oh, and a field trip to Irvine Regional Park. But that was just an afterthought in the minds of the twins. Instead of going anywhere, we should have just driven around town on the school bus with all of the kids, and they would have been perfectly happy!

I helped chaperone the field trip, and was assigned to Samantha and Amelia. What a coincidence!

What? School buses have seat belts now? Not in my day.

When I was teaching, most of my fellow teachers (myself included) viewed field trips with a sense of dread. It’s fun to do something different, but there’s also a lot of organization and work involved to keep everyone together and safe. I was always stressed out planning field trips! It was nice to follow someone else’s direction for a change and the Irvine Regional Park people had an organized agenda for us, making our jobs easier. Still, rounding up 50+ preschoolers and herding them through the park was no easy task.

First up: the train. All the kids were shouting things like, “Look! A peacock!” and “Look! A squirrel!” Owen chimed in, “Look! A bathroom!”

Little skeletons.

We also took the kids through the haunted house, through the corn maze and let them run around and stick their heads through the spooky cutouts. Amelia and Samantha kept begging to go in the bounce house and play the carnival games (I swear, they are addicted), but since that wasn’t on the agenda, we had to skip it. They didn’t really understand the whole field trip concept and kept asking when we were going back to school and if we were ever going home! You’d think they would just be happy to be there, but Samantha and Amelia typically feel ill at ease unless they know exactly what’s going on.

I guess we should have waited to buy our pumpkins this year because they let the kids pick some out for free that day.

What kid isn’t excited to eat their sack lunch on a field trip?

After lunch, we unleashed the torrent of kids onto the playground and the parents joked that we should have just walked to the park across the street from school instead of paying to come here. They would have been just as happy; although, the bus ride definitely put it over the top!

Meanwhile, Meredith was enjoying Take Your Daughter to Work Day at the firm. Jake’s paralegals and the other attorneys had a great time with Meredith (and probably got absolutely nothing done that morning!)

Lots of love,

Filed Under: Halloween Tagged With: first field trip, halloween 2016, Irvine regional park, preschool, school bus

Halloween Festivities

November 13, 2016 by Rebecca Whitehead

What happened to wearing your Halloween costume to elementary school to show off to your friends and teachers? Or turning classrooms into haunted houses and having a school-wide Halloween parade? I was disappointed to find out most schools around here don’t allow the kids to wear their costumes on actual Halloween… I guess I will just have to hold on to my fond memories. To compensate, Samantha and Amelia’s preschool had a Halloween party the weekend before and the kids were none the wiser.

Peter Pan received many compliments from other parents on his green tights!

Princess Leia and Tink.

The teachers transformed one of the classrooms into an enormous cardboard box maze, which took the girls’ fairy wings, shoes and crowns as major casualties as they crawled through. Carnival games were the other huge hits.

Samantha and Amelia stood in line forever just to throw a ping pong ball in a fish bowl in the hopes of winning a beta fish. I blew off any chance of them succeeding and told them to go for it. To my horror, Samantha won not one, but TWO beta fish with her amazingly accurate throws. I’m thinking softball career?

Poor Amelia stood in line twice without winning, and couldn’t be consoled, even though Samantha promised to share her fish with her. Fortunately, Miss Debbie said the fish would be available to pick up at the end of the party, by which time we had left and the girls had completely forgotten about them. Phew!

At school the week before Halloween, Samantha and Amelia brought home some cute crafts and were both the Helpers of the Day– their favorite. They brought in a fun Storytime in a Bag book and puppet from the library, “Go Away, Monster,” for their share item and made spiders and monster apple mouths for their snacks. And by them, I mean me.

I contemplated many existential questions (including what is the meaning of my life?) while putting together 30 cracker spiders and apple monsters at 5 a.m. that morning. True confession… I actually enjoy this stuff.

Our neighbor, Nate, came over to decorate sugar cookies with us and the girls were surprisingly willing to share and help him with his cookies.

My sugar cookies pale in comparison to my friend, Jodi’s, who makes the absolute best. We’ve gotten our girls together for cookie decorating three years running and it never gets old.

2013:

2014:

2015:

2016:

Meredith took advantage of me not paying attention and lunged forward. Her reward: delicious frosting!

Burning off sugar and playing ring around the rosie with Allie and Maliyah.

I want to play too!

The day after Halloween, the girls, Maliyah and Allie took their costumes out for one more spin since we weren’t able to get together on actual Halloween. Allie and Meredith were cute as matching Tinkerbells, and Maliyah showed off her very convincing “Argh!” as a “girl pirate.”

Going to the park is actually semi-relaxing for me and Jodi these days because the girls generally keep themselves busy playing games. They especially enjoy tag (monster tag and every other variation), Steal the Bacon, What Time is it Mr. Fox?, Red Rover, and Red Light, Green Light.

The fairies chase the pirate.

Love these new swings they put in– now we can all swing together!

Samantha and Amelia always each ask for a turn with Meredith, even though she tries to grab their hair the entire time.

Let’s fly, sister!

Just like Pan, I hope they never grow up!

Lots of love,

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: cookie decorating, fairies, halloween 2016, maliyah and allie, preschool halloween party, swings

Tanaka Farms 2016

October 21, 2016 by Rebecca Whitehead

We picked up an extra pumpkin this year at Tanaka Farms pumpkin patch! And a cute one at that.

Our trip to the pumpkin patch this year was pleasant enough, although, (SPOILER), the only truly content one was Meredith. Samantha and Amelia decided they were not putting up with any picture taking shenanigans that day and adamantly refused my ~~requests~~ pathetic pleas to smile at the camera. “FOR GOODNESS SAKES!” I kept yelling. “I BIRTHED YOU, I WIPE YOUR BUMS AND FEED YOU THREE SQUARE MEALS A DAY… THE LEAST YOU COULD DO IS FREAKING LOOK AT THE CAMERA.”

Despite my frustration, the twins knew that they had me right where they wanted me and alternated between being cute and laughing whenever I didn’t have my camera out and looking away/frowning/screaming when I did have the camera. They can be positively diabolical sometimes.

I get that it’s nice just enjoy the moments without recording them ad nauseam sometimes, but what they failed to realize is that it’s not easy getting three three-and-unders dressed, pottied, snacked, packed, and out the door, coordinating napping, pumping and mealtime schedules in between. In other words, this was our one family fall pumpkin patch trip and I would stop at nothing for that quintessential fall picture. I mean, objectively speaking, is that so much to ask? Apparently, yes.

I eventually just threw up my hands and walked away from them all in a huff, storm clouds and lightening following me. That seemed to get their attention and the girls tried to make up for it by being sweet the rest of the trip. I agreed to put away the camera and stop forcing smiles and in turn, they agreed to stop smacking each other and use hand sanitizer. Sometimes I feel like I’m negotiating with terrorists. But I’ll take it.

The girls placed votes for their three favorite scarecrows.

Meredith was thrilled she got to go on her first trip to the pumpkin patch.

THREENAGERS.

In uncharacteristic fashion, Meredith was screaming during the entire wagon ride around the farm. We thought she would love the bumpy ride, but she seemed scared, poor thing!

Pumpkin cannon.

My, how they’ve grown.

On a playdate with Grace to the patch, last year.

Can’t get over Amelia and Grace’s cuteness last year.

Kisses for the baby.

CRINKLY LEAVES. IN MY MOUTH. BEST. DAY. EVER.

HAVE YOU TRIED THESE? THEY’RE EXCELLENT.

Fascinating!

The cutest pumpkin in the patch.

Flashback to the pumpkin patch last year with Noah. I’m seeing a trend in moods for Samantha.

They couldn’t resist having fun sticking their heads through the various photo ops.

Meredith thought the whole poking her head through a pumpkin thing was hilarious.

Samantha was just not having it– even for Dora.

We finally got Samantha to smile by switching places with Amelia. Apparently, all she wanted to do was be the red pumpkin?

After waiting an eternity at the food stand for some sketchy tacos and hot dogs (note for next year– pack a lunch), the twins picked out pumpkins for themselves and Meredith. At first, they scanned the field for the biggest (and, hence, most expensive) ones they could find, until we revised the criteria to be limited to what they could pick up themselves.