Halloween + Patriotism = Pumpkins for America

I thought I would put up our Halloween pictures. But before I do so, I will spell out the DRAMA of Halloween this year. (Sam pointed out to me the other day that I don't use color in my posts, so I'm trying it out.) I always wanted Bria to be so cuddly and cute for Halloween. I mean, come on, it's her first Halloween! Sam was DEAD-SET on a Star Wars theme: Darth Vader, Princess Leia, and Yoda. Oddly enough, I hadn't imagined my sweet little daughter as being Yoda on her first Halloween. I know, right? But Sam was so excited about it. We didn't want to buy a Yoda costume, and I just had visions of failing Yoda costumes and the ensuing frustration. I finally swayed Sam from the Star Wars theme by explaining that I would only go for Star Wars on Halloween once, and wouldn't he like to wait until we can have a more complete cast with future children? If he did it this year and then asked again later, I would just have to say, "We already did Star Wars. Sorry." He agreed this was fair.
So we thought and thought and came up with some ideas that we just weren't that excited about. So we finally decided she could be the classic pumpkin/ jack-o-lantern. Unfortunately, decisions like these should be made before Halloween. We went to Target on Halloween afternoon, and, you guessed it, there were slim pickens in the ways of Halloween costumes. Nary an orange onesie in sight! We looked at the selection of baby costumes, but they weren't so cute. But, an idea popped into both out heads. Bria is small. Bria could even be the size of a small dog. (You see where I'm going with this, right?) Yes, I dressed my daughter in a costume made for a DOG. Oh well. She was so cute. Yes, there were holes for ears in the hat. Yes, it was the right size to fit my parents dog. But look at the pictures-- it was totally worth it! (Plus, the costume was 30% off, since it was Halloween day.)




So Sam pulled out his Robin costume (of Batman and) from last year, and I pulled out my handy cat ears. We went trick-or-treating with my brother-in-law Jason and my nephew Hunter. For one of my least favorite holidays (I blame an infected tetanus shot when I was 12 for ruining it), I had a great time!

Lastly, I just watched the newly-elected President Obama's speech from last night. If you haven't seen it yet, you can watch it here. I am PUMPED to be an American right now. I'm excited to see what Obama will do for America. Here Sam, Bria, and I are at an election results party last night (for which I made Obamadoodles [snickerdoodles made with chocolate] and McCainCorn [white chocolate covered popcorn-- thanks for the recipe Jean!]):
P.S. How did I do with the color? I think I went a little overboard.