Trick-or-treat and birthday wishes

Last week was a busy one. Halloween popped up, seemingly out of nowhere in my book, and even faster, E's second birthday.

As her parents, M and I were actually somewhat organized, probably because we didn't arrange a party for her. Parties for two year olds? Well, family comes to mind as the crowd that you invite to a 2 yr old's gig and since we don't have any here, we decided to stick with the 3 of us. Worked better for me, as I am not the world's greatest organizer. I have visions of botched birthday parties and missing bits of Halloween costumes and unpurchased birthday gifts for those little girl birthday's she will undoubtedly go to.... Eek!

Anyhow, Halloween went without a hitch. It was still dark when we put on her costume and the "hood" lasted about 10 minutes before it came off. We had to put it back on and bribe the child finally so we could get a few photos. You'll see the form of bribery in the photos no doubt. Here's the lot of them, there are quite a few, be forewarned!

Trick-or-treating did not take long to explain. The neighborhood near our daycare had a sponsored events - all the businesses handed out candy to the trick-or-treaters from 3-6pm. Although it had rained cats and dogs all day, somehow when it was time to pick up E, the clouds parted and the sun shone down on the lot of us. It was a nice evening! We walked around with all the other kids and got candy from people waiting to give us candy. I did try to teach good manners - say "Thank you" although it's more like "Tn do" so no one really knew it was thank you but us. At least she said it a few times! One time she actually got to select her own candy (rather than the person handing it to her) and there was definitely some thought process going on behind the piece she chose because she moved a few pieces around to get the one she wanted!
As a parent, I love to see that stuff. It just lets you know they are becoming their own little person! After about an hour of walking, well, me carrying, we went to see a friend who wanted to see E's costume and she got a lot more candy. Finally we stopped at another friend's house and helped them hand out candy. It was a good night! She definitely enjoyed the night, I think.

The next day we woke early, unfortunately, but it was E's birthday and there were presents to open! She got some cute gifts from abroad and then our gift, which was a trike. More photos here. We also went to IHOP and got the smiley face pancake with ice cream for dessert (yes, at 10am!). We opened another present and got a couple balloons from IHOP and spent the rest of the day recovering from the onslaught of sugar in the morning. I think she liked it her day!

Sunday was another lovely birthday celebration with our friends that we handed out candy with and Monday she had a little birthday party at daycare replete with ice cream and a crown. Needless to say, we are still coming OFF that 4 day sugar binge!! But it's all good.

She is definitely TWO now. It seems the switch has switched. ;) More about that later.