Halloween Carnival

Yes, it's time for Halloween. I feel like this is almost like my first REAL Halloween.

The leaves on the trees are changing colors, the mountains are changing color, the weather is different, and people are really big into Halloween here.
Most of my Halloween experiences in FL were hot, humid, and green, People carved pumpkins and had decorations, but not like here. It's been really neat. Plus, I think Halloween has a different feel to it once you have children.

It's been really fun for me to celebrate Halloween these past four years, especially once we moved to Cali...Halloween is big, but it's a bit different from here. I've really enjoyed it.

Our fun started that early afternoon by carving a pumpkin.

Our local township had a community Halloween carnival and it was fun and free. The kids played games, lots of games. Arden went on the big slide and jumpy house. Maya loved looking at the costumes and dancing to the music. She's got rhythm!

They also had hot dogs, drinks, and treats.

Maya really liked her giant cookie.

What I liked the best is that there wasn't a ton of candy(actually, barely any candy), yet, with the games they played they could get prizes that they liked and didn't get all high on sugar...with candy, I don't know about the giant cookie though.

Mayita the mariposita. She's so cuddly!

Didn't you know I had an older daughter? =) Arden likes to wear Maya's hair clips.
A funny story about Arden's costume. About a month ago I asked Arden:

"What would you like to be for Halloween?"

"A pirate, " he replies.

"Great! We already have your costume in your dress up clothes."

On the day of the carnival:

"Are you ready to put on your pirate costume?" I ask.

"No. I want to be a dinosaur." He runs to the playroom and shows me his Halloween costume from last year.

"Honey, I don't that will fit you anymore. Besides, you already wore that last year for Halloween. Don't you want to be a pirate?" I ask.

"No. I want to be a cantasorous (excuse the spelling. I'm not up on my dinosaur terminology, but Arden is)." He replies.

"Okay, we'll put it on. We'll see if it fits."
So it does end up fitting him on his torso. His arms and legs are about 2-3 inches too short. He solves this by wearing his boots. At the carnival he finds other dinosaurs, immediately connects with them and pretend they are real dinosaurs.