Zoo Boo, Dojo Celebrations, and Halloween!

I almost forgot to do a post this week! Ha! I was so sleepy last night I went to bed crazy early. Anyway, we had a great time with Halloween this year. We went to Zoo Boo for the first time. It was fun but I'm not sure I'm dying to go back again next year. It was just really crowded. I think these guys had a great time even if we didn't get to see everything!

I didn't take many pictures of Halloween night so I am super happy we took some at Zoo Boo! Here's my new, short hair for anyone who hasn't seen it! Autumn dressed up as Doc McStuffins!

Originally, she was going to be Elsa in the costume I made her for her birthday. But Autumn has been able to wear that a lot since her birthday and I had a feeling that there would be a ton of Elsas. I asked her if she'd like to do something different and she said she wanted to be Doc. I'll be honest, because I LOVE HALLOWEEN I tried to talk her into something more complicated but she wasn't having any of it. :) I like that she knows what she wants. 

 Look at how cute this face is! I brought ears for Lindsay and me to wear. Ellie thoroughly enjoyed the swaying ears.

These two. They loved these bees! Before we left, we got to watch a magic show and some performers doing songs from Peter Pan. The kids all enjoyed it--Autumn was especially entranced by the magic show. I have to say, it was pretty good. He did one long drawn out gag that ended in an older teen leaping across the stage into the magician's arms out of fright! 

I made my own costume! I was Toph from Avatar the Last Airbender. And not the Avatar that has blue creatures. The cartoon. Some people were super confused about why I didn't have blue skin when I told them who I was. If you want to, you can watch this starting at 4:12. I showed this to Autumn early because we're watching the series but hadn't gotten to Toph yet. Autumn was entranced and said, "I want to be Toph next year." We'll see if she sticks to it!


And here I am! I'm probably going to post something on my blog about making the costume and you can see my gauntlets. We wore costumes in Aikido the who week of Halloween and this is my Tuesday elementary age class. We also played games, did a Japanese craft, and read Zen Ghosts by Jon J. Muth. Thursday, Autumn wore her Elsa dress to ballet. She said she was glad she decided to be Doc McStuffins because out of five girls in her class there were THREE Elsas!

On Halloween day, I read Zen Ghosts to Autumn's class and brought them cookies and juice. So fun! After school, we went to the hospital to see Penny who had to work. We have seen her every year since Autumn was a baby!! This year Autumn made out like a bandit with candy, medical tape, and TWO pen lights. On the way out she marveled at how her lights and tape make her a like a real doctor.

That night, we had friends over for chili, soup, and warm drinks. Several friends stopped in to eat and say hi and then went on to other trick or treating plans but this was our trick or treat group. We met up with another family from the cove and walked with them, too.

We have Kyle and Lindsay's fire pit while they are in between houses but I think we're going to have to get our own! We put the fire pit in the driveway and handed out candy. Kids who wanted to have a roasted marshmallow got one on a GIANT SKEWER. The ones I bought were too short but our neighbors came to the rescue! Mike said the marshmallows were a big hit. Definitely a do-again. Note that Mike is studiously avoiding being photographed. He said his costume was a "sleepy papa."

And so, Halloween is over and I am sad. But we had a blast and got to celebrate over several days so I suppose I can't complain. I haven't been able to bring myself to take down our wreath. IT'S JUST TOO CUTE.