Halloween & A Baby Shower

Ok for anyone that actually reads this blog...I'm working on finally getting to post events because I have been super slack since Halloween!

Halloween morning Arden and I went to music class, where all the kids were in costume. Arden in her fish costume, which was a huge hit. Arden's favorite was Cade who dressed up like a Christmas tree complete with lights on his stroller. She thought the Christmas ornaments that his mom sewed to his onesie were fun to play with. Arden loves music class, especially sitting in Miss Suzanne's lap. She spends most of the class away from me the social butterfly that she is!

Then Arden and I hit the road up to Maryland because it was the weekend for my brother, Brian & sister in law, Amy's baby shower. The last part of the road trip was a bit hairy by myself in the car with a toddler that was DONE being in the car. It made me very much appreciate Dave's help on road trips! But we got there and Arden got to go trick-or-treating in Brian's neighborhood in Annapolis. I use the word trick-or-treating loosely, considering I don't think she grasped the whole collecting candy concept. She was more excited to be allowed to walk around in the street at night. Then Saturday we had Brian & Amy's shower. It was a lot of fun. I was in charge of "games" one of which I decided to do for the boys where they had to "chug" beer through a baby bottle.

Amy & Brian got lots of goodies for their upcoming baby girl and seemed to have a great time. Arden spent her time at the baby shower eating ice cubes from the drinks tub and ripping the tissue paper from the gift bags so she had a good time too!

Later that night, I was able to leave Arden with my parents and drive to Gaithersburg to meet up with my high school girl friends. It was Jen's birthday so everyone was hanging out a Greg's downtown in DC. It was a fun night!

Kid's Costume & Pumpkin Carving Party

So every year Dave and I host a pumpkin carving party. It's funny to see it evolve over the years. It used to be a late night event with a lot of alcohol and then we've all had kids. So it's become a lot more family friendly, and has morphed into a kids costume party and pumpkin carving get together. Last year Arden wasn't mobile so I was able to get a lot more pictures. This year, she's all over the place and even took a header off the back deck stairs (she's fine) but not as many pictures to post. It's hard to be a hostess, a mother and document the event at the same time! But despite the rain and my worries about having a bunch of toddlers in a small house, it was a fun party! Arden-the fish, Oscar-the pterodactyl, and Killian-the monkey- all seemed to interact fine in the animal kingdom.
I think next year we'll go back to hosting it in the afternoon after nap times, because it's kind of anti climatic to carve a pumpkin and then not be able to light it up. Of course, I messed up my Obama pumpkin anyway, so that was a bummer. But overall it was a good party!

Obama Mama

I'm stealing my friend Ellen's blog title.... So obviously there's a historic election on our hands. You'd have to be literally living under a rock to not know that or be affected by the media and commercials. North Carolina is a "battleground" state so there has been a ton of activity with candidates and the such campaigning here, especially since Raleigh is the capital. Anyone that knows Dave and my views on just about anything knows that we're definitely voting for Obama over the other guy. Hopefully enough people will agree with us and we can get some hope for change in Washington that is long overdue. Ok, I'll step of my soapbox now....but get out and VOTE!James Taylor, being a Carolina native, was doing a Obama benefit tour throughout North Carolina. Arden and I were headed downtown to the Obama headquarters anyway to get a new sticker and ended up attending the free concert. It's a bit challenging to actually "see" a concert with a wandering toddler, but she was a hit with the crowd because of her shirt! She even got her picture taken a few times.

Pumpkin Patch

We headed to Hill Ridge Farm's Pumpkin Patch over the weekend with the Cuales and Marks families. All the kids seemed to have a blast! Not sure how much "farming" actually occurs on this farm but they had tons of activities for the kids. Arden really loved the corn playroom which was a gazebo filled about a foot deep with corn kernels. She thought it was the funniest thing to toss them in the air. She also played in the hay maze and Dave and I commented on how different the maze probably seemed to someone that's only 2 feet tall! Then we took the much anticipated hay ride to the pumpkin patch. Arden was excited on the hayride and pointed to things as we went by.

But she was in pumpkin mecca when we got off. She's been obsessed with pumpkins this month, pointing to them and getting all excited anytime we go anywhere that has a display of pumpkins (which of course is quite a frequent occurrence in October) So she got off the hayride and maybe a beeline for the field of pumpkins. She wanted to touch and sit on all of them, selecting the perfect one (or maybe 30) pumpkins that she wanted to take home. It's so much fun to see her experience her world and watch her do new things!