Pippi Longstocking, Ladybug Girl, Fancy Nancy

How obsessed do you think we are? Here are some clues:

• Audrey, whose previous longest word was probably "potty" was suddenly saying "pippilongstocking."
• I heard Jane talking to herself and the speech went, "I tell myself to go to bed. At first I say it quite nicely like 'Pippi, it's time for bed.' And if I don't listen I have to say it more firm. 'Pippi! Go to bed!' And if I still don't listen I give myself a spanking you see. So there." This is practically verbatim, for those of you who don't happen to know.
• We rented 4 Pippi movies (the Swedish versions with English dubbing) and watched the American one online. No telling how many viewings we have had in the past 3 weeks.
• There is constant playing of the Pippi game Don't Touch the Floor

I think it's fair to say we are fairly obsessed. It was a natural choice for Jane's costume this year.

Audrey wanted to be her as well, I think. But we grabbed some Fancy Nancy books and some Ladybug Girl books and she was satisfied that she was a lot like Ladybug Girls who, like Audrey, likes to feel the leaves falling on her head and likes to hang on things. When we are at the park,

Audrey loves to just hang at the top of the slides over and over; her feet tucked up to her rear. So I happily pointed out Ladybug Girl doing the same thing on a tree in the book.

Madelynn could care less about dressing up, but she made a cute Fancy Nancy. I have to admit I put very little effort into her costume, as is very apparent, but I think she'll agree with me someday that this was not an important year for her. She loved being at the ward party, though!

Halloween 2010

We are SO lucky to be near enough to the Mitchells still that we've already had 2 visits since moving down here. We went up to visit in September, and they came down for Halloween weekend. It is so great to see the cousins still bonding and knowing each other. After both visits, Jane has begged me to move back to Milwaukee. I attribute that to these guys.

Since it was Halloweeen weekend and they weren't getting here in time for our ward party, we had to plan one for ourselves.

We started by putting all our hands in a circle and broke with "Boo!" Team

spirit can apply to lots of things, right? Cupcake decorating was first on the list. Even Baby got some sugar.

The start of the sugar high

After doing Pippi hair 3 times, Jane and I decided to switch things up and be Cinderella. Doesn't my homemade ghost pinata look really good behind her? Yes, I'm asking for compliments.

We played "trick or treat" by pulling slips out of a hat and either getting a treat or doing a trick. Rubbing your belly and patting your head needs to be taught at a young age. Here are some awesome treats:

Even monsters can be cute

Freaky

The mummy roll. Jack was hilarious AND scary walking around like a mummy. I love the roll of paper in this picture.

After all the kids swatted at the ghost, we finally had a jedi who could do the job:

And now we are officially (especially me) in sugar comas.