Happy Halloween!

Halloween is quickly becoming one of my favorite holidays. Since Jack's birthday is only two days after, we've thrown costume parties for his birthday the last two years. This year, he of course wanted to dress up as Winnie the Pooh. We found the most adorable costume for him on eBay. Tom's favorite part was the headpiece with the ears and the puffy Pooh cheeks, but I think this made the costume too hot for Jack and he wouldn't keep it on for very long.

The day of Jack's party was perfect, weather-wise. Fall had finally fallen in San Diego, and we were enjoying some cooler weather. (It has since warmed up again.) I was a little worried about how Jack would do with so many kids at his house. But we moved most of his toys upstairs so no one would fight over them and rented a jump house. A hired Winnie the Pooh equivalent (not the real thing - don't sue us, Disney) also came to the party to help entertain the kiddos. Jack was in heaven.



One of my favorite parts of the party was when we lit the candles on Jack's (purple, blue, and green, by special request) birthday cupcakes. As I was lighting them, he kept singing "Happy Birthday" to himself. And then he led the chorus when it was time to "officially" sing, going so far as to sing, "Happy birthday, dear Jack-Jack." He never refers to himself as Jack-Jack, except when he's singing this song to himself. I hope we can hear him on the video that was taken.



Last year, I told people that Jack's party felt like a second wedding. So much work went into preparing for it, but it went by so fast and we hardly had time to talk to anybody. This year was a lot less stressful for me, in part because we had done it before and knew what needed to be done and also because of the incredible help of my wonderful friends. But it was still hard to relax and talk to everyone. I hope everyone knows how much we appreciated their coming to the party.

Later that evening, we went over to the home of some friends in Poway who live in a neighborhood that goes all out for Halloween. Jack had a wonderful time running down the sidewalk with his friends, shrieking, and collecting candy for - ahem! - the homeless. He couldn't quite remember that he was supposed to say "trick or treat!" every time. Frequently he would just say, "Happy Halloween!" but I think most people knew what he meant.


Jack's current favorite from among many amazing presents is what I call Pooh 2.0. Our beautiful friends, Danielle and Charlotte, got us a back-up for Jack's favorite lovey. He noticed it sitting on my dresser, where I had quickly stashed it before heading out to the Halloween party. Thankfully, he didn't realize it was a different one. "He's so clean!" was the only comment that he made. Haha.

We hope everyone had as wonderful a Halloween as we did.