And as we prepare for Christmas, Happy Halloween!

We had a jam-packed, over-the-top fun Halloween weekend.

Friday night we went to the Fall Festival at church. Mary Lawton was a little overwhelmed, but she wore her costume most of the time we were there and played some carnival games. My favorite part of the night was when she "won" prizes for the games, like the ball toss, and then tossed the prizes through the holes, too. My second favorite part was when someone asked if I made her costume, and when I said yes, she said, "I can tell. It looks too good to be store-bought." Score!

Saturday night we went to Carol and Frazier's pumpkin carving party, even though it looked like Sweet LJ and Mary Lawton were coming down with colds. Mary Lawton stayed up until 9 PM--an all-time record--and she was perfect. She loved the pumpkins, expensive cheese, and dogs at Carol's house. I told her the M&Ms on the coffee table were dog treats. She was happy eating chili and parrano.

By Sunday morning the colds were full-blown. Sweet LJ stayed home with Mary Lawton while I went to Lilly's 3rd birthday party. I didn't want to be the mom who brought the sick kid to a party. I sort of sneaked out because Mary Lawton had been talking about "Lee-Lee's pahty" and singing happy birthday to her for days. She was happy that I brought her a Disney princesses flashlight and stickers and never wondered where I got them.

Mary Lawton took a long nap that afternoon, and we decided to take her trick-or-treating in the neighborhood that night. We met up with a neighborhood group for pictures, then went out on our own to show off our lion to some friends. Mary Lawton loved it. She said "trick or treat!" and thank you a few times and seemed proud of her costume. She had no idea that the treats people were giving her were candy.

Look carefully and you will see a lion after she climbed the hill with Daddy.

"Lion in pine straw"

The neighborhood kids

Loot!

Goodnight.