Mission Viejo Hometown Halloween Event

We dropped by on Saturday at the Norman Murray Community Center for Mission Viejo's annual Hometown Halloween event. It's sponsored by Saddleback Unified School district and geared for little tikes. It's not scary, there are games, pony rides, hay ride, arts and crafts and trick or treating. They never run out of candy and the kids get to practice saying trick or treat. Plus, they get to wear their costumes early and get more use out of them.  Ava decided to be a fairy princess and Charlotte picked out the giraffe head band and tail at Costume Castle. Ava had been saying she wanted to be a pink kitty cat for the last two months for Halloween. She picked out kitty ears and a tail at the costume shop but was not excited about the actual cat costumes that were black and brown. Once she passed the princess accessories aisle it was game over. She changed her mind about being a pink kitty cat and picked out pink fairy wings, a crown and wand. She has a white dress up gown at home to wear with her accessories. Mom and Dad made it out of the costume shop easy along with our 20% off coupon.

                                       Checking out their first Halloween candy handout of the night.

Ava, Mikey, and Kaia checking out the kitty cat that will eventually pop out of the pumpkin.

                                          Ava and Mikey looking at the ponies after their pony ride.

                                                         Ava and Liam after getting some loot.

                                             All the mamas and the papas with their munchkins.

                    One last trick-or-treat before heading home. Favorite candy: Sour Punch Straws!

                                                    Now, four more days till the real Halloween!!!

Exsilio Co Picnic at Irvine Regional Park

The next day after Charlotte's birthday we headed over to Ryan's new company picnic at Irvine Regional Park. Ryan's new co-workers were very friendly and it seemed as though many of them have very small children. The kids spent about 4 hours jumping around the inflatable obstacle course and had pizza from a mobile retired fire truck. We all had a really good time.

Ava and Charlotte tackling the obstacle course. Charlotte surprised us by being able to do the whole course by herself! Sheesh. Ryan went through the obstacle course with her about three times and spotted her to make sure she was okay. She has better climbing skills than we knew.

Ava climbing up to the main slide at the end of the obstacle course. Yes, Charlotte can do this by herself! Yikes. They were both loving it.

Charlotte's 2nd Birthday!

                                                              Charlotte's 2nd Birthday!

Charlotte turned two years old on Saturday, October 20th, 2012. They weather was a bit cooler than usual, but we took our chances and had a small get together at Cabot Park in Laguna Hills, CA. We had intermittent drizzling throughout the time but took it with some ease. Charlotte had a great time with family and a few friends. She had a Hello Kitty theme and really loved her balloons.

                                                           Sneaking a taste of her birthday cake.

                                                 Tres leches and fresh strawberries birthday cake.

                             (Ava has been making some "funny" faces instead of smiling lately. Aye.)

                                              It was a great birthday and now it's time for a little nap.
                                     Thank you to everyone for making my birthday so fun and special!
                                                            Being two is going to be awesome!