This is Halloween!

With Virginia at age 3 1/2, we knew Halloween was going to be a blast this year, and we were not disappointed!  We did the usual visit to Moore's Pumpkin Patch in Castro Valley earlier in the month, and also had a great Halloween party and playdate at our house with all of her buddies (which we pretty much forgot to photograph!).  We also visited our friends at Chez Neumansky in the days leading up to Halloween to see their haunted front yard and visit Virginia's friend, Tasha.

Pumpkin Patch Highlights:

The only photo of our "Pumpkin Pizza Playdate" party (the kids kept us too busy!):

The PJ afterparty with Griffin:

Since Alameda has such great spooky Halloween decorations, we invited Mimi and Papa to come for the holiday this year.  We carved pumpkins with Papa and were silly with Mimi all week long.

Virginia had very firm ideas about her Halloween costume this year (a butterfly), and all of Thomas's convincing and cajoling would not budge her off of it.  So, a butterfly it was!  Most of the butterfly costumes on the market were inappropriately trashy, so we made our own with a pair of wings, an orange fluffy skirt, a black leotard, and face paint.

Halloween itself was a rainy day, but we made the most of it trick-or-treating with Virginia's playgroup buddies, Xander and Isabel, all around the Gold Coast.  Virginia got a lot of loot and lots of compliments on her cute costume.

Tron, Tinkerbell, and Butterfly:

Ready to get some candy!:

Virginia and Tasha (aka Butterfly Fairy Pirate Princess):

Spooky Gold Coast decorations:

Assessing her loot with Mimi, clearly after having way too much candy!