♫♪ This is Halloween, This is Halloween ♪♫

Last Halloween Mia was a princess and this year she decided she wanted to be a witch that "gets" the princess. Haha! How completely opposite. She still loves the princesses, though. It was a close competition between a witch, Rapunzel and Sleeping Beauty (her new favorite), but in the end her mischievous side got the better. She was a “cute” witch, but she didn’t know it. She thought her costume in its purple/green/black hues was pretty sinister looking. The fact that it was covered in moons and stars and completely adorable didn’t seem to faze her perception. We went to Christopher’s uncle’s for his annual Halloween party and Mia had a great time playing with other kiddos and going through the haunted house many, many times. After about 5 times I stopped counting. She loves being scared. Our “scary witch” also won the prize for “cutest costume” – she was so thrilled!

We spent Halloween at my brother’s, again, where we threw a small party on the back patio and had lots of goodies and a few games to keep busy until it got dark. Then the kiddos trick-or-treated it up and got just a little candy before they called it a night.

Our Gabba pumpkins :)

The Happiest Place on Earth

This was all Christopher’s doing, but I’m glad he did it. We left our problems behind, if just for a while, and spent a couple of blissful days in the magical kingdom…though I remember it being a lot more magical when I was younger. Ah, to be young. What made it magical for us this time around, though, was seeing the awe on our little girl’s face. Watching her as she saw everything for the first time and being so excited that she really ought to have spontaneously combusted - it was the best thing in the world. And we concluded that the fall is the most perfect time to go. It’s our favorite season, Halloween is our favorite holiday (I love Christmas; he doesn’t, the Grinch) and Mia was finally the right age to go and actually enjoy it now.

We spent the first day at Mickey’s Halloween Party so Mia got to don her Belle dress again and it was awesome to see all the people and characters in costumes walking around. We got to see more villains than usual, our favorites! We were in heaven. They were going around heckling everyone! Mia got to see Captain Hook, one of her favorite villains. And she loves the evil queens/witches from the princess movies, so when The Evil Queen from Snow White passed her and slightly bent down and said in an sickly-sweet, evil way, “you look beautiful, my dear” that totally made her night. She was taken back with a huge smile. It was great! Everything was decked out for fall/Halloween and there were candy stations everywhere for everyone to trick-or-treat at. And they gave out the good candy, not the cheap Smarties stuff. Some people had many, many big bags full, but we just got a bit. We were too busy having fun to stop and stand in line for candy. Mia’s very favorite ride was the Haunted Mansion. That’s what we rode the most. She’s a strange child. She likes being scared. It was revamped to represent A Nightmare before Christmas - one of our favorites. This party went late into the night and right before Mia crashed, we went into Tomorrowland where we danced it up with the characters from Toy Story. It was hilarious to see Mia go crazy with the Buzz and the Army Men! And at the end of it all, they had a special Halloween Parade for us to enjoy. It was the most fun of the two days.





 The second day, it started out raining? I mean really raining. We brought ponchos with us (see, being prepared pays off!), but we still ducked and covered exploring stores and getting Mia’s silhouette done while we waited for it to dry up a bit. And after about an hour the clouds went away and it became a warm, sunny day. We spent a lot of time in Toon Town where Mia finally go to meet Mickey Mouse - one of her goals of the trip. It was worth the extremely long wait. When she finally got her moment, she hugged him so tight and talked his ear off. Then she asked why he didn’t talk back. We weren’t prepared for this question. So we told her he must have had a sore throat. She said he should probably take some medicine then. We did it all over again, and more. Just a really nice time.

I thought Christopher was insane for picking this time in our lives to go, but we really needed it. So I guess sometimes Daddy knows best. Sometimes. ;-)

More Dance and a Trip to the Fair

I think the first recital was the ice-breaker because after that, Mia went into cheddar cheese and ham mode and completely – I don’t know – focused on doing a great job at every other performance. I thought maybe I was just being biased (because she was my child :p), but we had people come up to us after these shows and tell us and her what a great job she did. Her teacher, other teachers, even complete strangers. And I think that fueled her to keep doing her best. Why was this so surprising to us all? Because Mia is, without question, the class clown. She’ll practice and all, but just until she gets bored and then she starts goofing off and trying to make everyone laugh. I know. I’ve seen it many times. So to go from being the one who others looked to for goofing off, to being the one that others look to for the steps was a complete 180. Don’t know how she pulled it off, but they were proud Mamma moments for sure.

After one of Mia’s dance performances at the fair, we made a night of it and unleashed the crazy monster for a night of fun. I rode a couple of rides with her, but it was mostly Daddy who went all out and there was no stopping until every ride was ridden…at least twice. And although I was just the pack mule carrying all of the food, drinks and goodies as we went along, this was by far the most fun we’ve had at the fair.

We also went home with three fish that the two crazies won. Just what I wanted, three more mouths to feed. Yay! I kid. They’re very pretty (still alive!) and there’s a small, medium and large. Mia appropriately named them Daddy, Mommy and Baby. ^_^