Halloween Time

Yesterday was Halloween and the Washington family had a great day! We woke up around 7, ate some breakfast, and took off for Disneyland. But first, on Friday...There was a Halloween costume parade at Zahra's school. Unfortunately we didn't get any great pictures of her with her classmates, but this one of Max was pretty cute. Perhaps it was too early for him or maybe he just doesn't understand the whole costume concept, but he seemed really out of it on Friday morning. He just kind of stood around on the playground looking lost. We borrowed this adorable little dragon costume from Max's cousin Jordan, who wore it last year. Jordan's mom got it for only $6! Not only is it really cute, it was very warm, too, which is not always a quality found in many Halloween costumes. Max really doesn't like to wear hats or hoods usually, so I was really surprised that he kept the dragon head on every time we had the kids dressed up (four separate occasions).

On Friday evening there was a Halloween party for kids at Willie's jiu jitsu academy. This happy picture was taken right before we walked in with the kids.

Halloween morning was when we started our celebration. We took this picture at Disneyland, where we had the kids wear their costumes.

Then, at half past ten, Princess Tiana had a performance in New Orleans Square at Disneyland. She sang a song with her jazz band and then took time to meet her fans.

(For those of you who haven't seen the movie yet, Tiana is the newest of Disney royalty from last year's movie "The Princess and the Frog." We were going to have Zahra be the princess and Max be the frog, but we couldn't find a frog costume anywhere. And then we borrowed that cute dragon costume from Jordan anyway...)

Princess Tiana seemed so excited when she saw Zahra in her costume. She was very gracious and she took some extra time to talk to Zahra. Of course she was nice to all the kids in line, but I think she treated Zahra like a special princess in her own right. It was heartwarming to watch, listen, and see how excited Zahra got when it was her turn to take a picture.

This one came out so beautiful! We're excited and definitely want to get this one printed.

Then we decided to take a family picture with the two Princess Tianas.

Later we went across the park to ride our favorite, Space Mountain. It's always so dark inside the ride that you can't watch the expressions on Zahra's face as you're riding, so it's fun to see her here in one of the pictures they take for you. Usually she's too short to even be seen in these, so it's fun that you can see her face and she's even got her arm raised up! Wonder why Willie looks so scared, though...

Then we went through Pixie Hollow to meet the Fairies. By this point, Zahra had decided to take her costume off and we just kept Max in his a little longer for a few more shots. But he didn't seem to warm up to the fairies very much.

Zahra meeting Tinkerbell

Here are the kids eating churros at the centermost point of the Disneyland park. (Note the little gold marker.) We had watched a documentary about Disneyland the day before and discovered something new to look for since we'd never known what it was before (if we had even looked at it).

After Disneyland, we went home to rest and watch a movie in the afternoon. Then Willie's cousin Terrace, Rachel, and their son Jordan came down from Riverside to go trick-or-treating with us. Here is Max demonstrating what he did in place of saying "Trick or treat!" He would hold up his little bucket for people to deposit candy in since he doesn't really talk very much. Willie said that a couple times Max did say something that sounded vaguely like what he was supposed to say. We also met up with our old neighbors and Zahra's friend Alysha and one of her friends and family.

We went trick-or-treating in the neighborhood around Zahra's school. By the end of the night we had walked a mile and a half going door to door at all the houses that were lit up and decorated. Zahra had tons of fun with the other kids and was really happy and upbeat the whole time. I put a lot of layers on her so she wouldn't be cold and she never complained once that she was chilly. In this picture, she's so happy that she's skipping back to the sidewalk as her brother and dad make it up to the porch.

After seeing Princess Tiana's dress and how it ballooned out at the waist, I had an idea for how we could enhance Zahra's little costume. When we came home, I ironed the dress and decided that we could have her wear a tutu underneath to make the dress stick out. Zahra thought it was a lot of fun and was happy to wear another item to make her dress look more like the one we saw earlier at Disneyland.

Zahra ran off before I could get a better picture with her cousin but at least Jordan looks happy here! He kept saying "Rooooar!" which was pretty cute.

Last year Zahra was scared of a lot of the Halloween decorations and didn't really want to go up to any of the houses without a handheld escort, but this year she seemed interested in all of the different things people had in their yards. Max, on the other hand, was extremely weary of things, even cute little ghosts like this one. I think he wasn't sure if they were real or not since they were making noise.

Zahra and Alysha in front of a big pumpkin

And Max couldn't quite make it through the whole night... By the time I set him up in the stroller, he easily slid in and sat down like it was the best thing. I thought if I gave him the flashlight to hold that he would have more fun sitting down and not joining in with the older kids, but I don't think he even cared because he was so tired.

Our little princess shows off her candy riches. We kept having to empty her little bucket into a pillowcase that Willie brought with us because she ran out of room over and over. By the end of the night, the pillowcase was so heavy it probably weighed three or four pounds. Granted it was from both Max and Zahra's buckets, but it was still a lot of candy. Overall, it was a really fun day -- visiting Disneyland and then trick-or-treating with family and friends. Since I don't remember much from Halloweens when I was a kid, this was definitely the best Halloween I have had in a long time. It was a great day!