1st Halloween

Better late than never right? Now that it's well into November I decided I better get posting about our final Halloween adventures. The actual holiday itself turned into a sort of "mini-Hanukkah" since we started celebrating the Thursday before. I figured since it was Addison's first halloween we would go all out and have it encompass three days. Well that fact and also the fact that I had a little bit of "Mommy Guilt" since I was taking her on a trip to STL to see my beloved Rob Thomas on Halloween night. (See previous posts)

Anyway, we headed out of town on Friday and swung by and picked up Grandma on our way to Aunt Cassie's house. Addison and Grandma Bell are good buddies and always manage to have fun with each other. Mommy loves this too because Grandma Bell makes a great assistant. Actually it seems that I'm the part-time assistant while Grandma takes all the reins. It makes for a nice break for us both. Grandma changes the poopy diapers, bathes her, and feeds her, while I swing in for the fun stuff here and there. I'm sure Addison appreciates the change in scenery as well since she seems to have so much fun when Grandma's around.

Once we got to Aunt Cassie & Uncle Kyle's house we headed straight out for a little pre-halloween adventure at the outlet mall. Alexa came dressed as a cute squeezy teddy bear while little Addibell was an equally squeezy little monkey.

Sidenote: All through my growing up years I was obsessed with monkeys. I dreamt of the day I would actually own a baby monkey. Even my daydreams seemed to exclude the reality of such curious messy creatures. Instead of envisioning lots of poop and messes, I could only see us having fun playing and putting diapers on him and feeding him bananas. I even mentally assigned my mom as the monkey babysitter on the days I would have to be at school. I don't think she ever knew her role in my monkey dreams. Sadly my dream never became a reality. I actually got even more distraught once I grew up and saw an ad in a paper for a pet monkey. I didn't know people actually kept them as pets after all!!! :(

So, it was only fitting that my little Addibell dress up as a cute little monkey for Halloween. Well for that fact and also the fact that the little outfit was on sale at TJ Maxx of course. Two things Mommy loves: Monkeys and a good bargain! Honestly Addison would have been adorable in anything we put her in but it was nice Mommy got to live out a childhood fantasy - even if for only a weekend.

I didn't quite know what Addison would think of the trick-or-treating since Mommy would be consuming all of her bounty but she did actually love it. The pictures below will prove just how much fun she had. Since her little chubby hands couldn't hold the trick-or-treating basket, I improvised and put it around her monkey foot. Every store we went in we would do the "Trick-or-Treat" and a little tilt of the stroller so they'd drop the candy in her basket. There were soooo many stores so toward the end we got a little more selective and only went after the good candy. I must also mention that Grandma did a great job as our personal photographer. I got a little glimpse of what it must feel like to be famous since she was waiting in the bushes to take our picture as we exited each store. I'll save you the time and not post ALL of the pictures she took - just know she got some good ones.

So thank you to Aunt Cassie & Uncle Kyle & Cousin Alexa for hosting us and making our halloween so memorable (Rob Thomas Concert included).

The beginning of our trick-or-treating adventure.

A close-up of my cute little monkey girl.

Hangin' out with Cousin Alexa.