Trick or treat!

Grab your beverage of choice, have a seat, and get comfy...this post has grown much, much longer than I anticipated, but it's a good one!

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What a fun Halloween! This was definitely the first year the girls really understood getting dressed up and going trick or treating with friends. The timing, however, was terrible. Almost every year since Ryan and I started dating, we have been pretty creative with our costumes. 

We met mid-October 2004. I wasn't invited to Ryan's Halloween party that year. I think he said something along the lines of, 'I would hate for you to be uncomfortable since you don't know any of my friends.' How thoughtful. I have yet to let him live that one down.

Halloween 2005 - Rainbow Brite and Captain of the Fallopian Swim Team.

Yes, you read that correctly. There was actually an entire team.

 

Halloween 2006 - A wrastler and his coach.

Halloween 2007 is mysteriously missing from my photo files. I'll have to see if Ryan can remember if we dressed up, but I was about 4 months pregnant with Daly. There's a chance we skipped that one. 

Halloween 2008 {Daly's first}

The Chicken, The Egg, and The Causality Dilemma

Halloween 2009 {Reese's first} - Fishermen and Our Clownfish.
Daly was absolutely obsessed with Nemo.

I wore my grandpa's old sun hat. I can remember him wearing it everytime he went out back to garden. Makes me sad that my girls didn't get to meet my papa.

Halloween 2010 - Throwback Lakers, a basketball hoop, and a basketball.
I think Reese wore her basketball 'costume' for about 17 seconds.  {I cut an old basketball in half, punched holes on top, and tied ribbons to hang the halves over her shoulders. I wish I had a picture.} I also spent infinitely more time on Daly's costume than the amount of time she actually wore it. She called it her 'hoot' and loved looking at it. She just wasn't into wearing my foam board, ribbon, glue gun, and felt creation.

Parents of the Year alert...I just noticed Daly's milk cup next to Ryan's beer. Nice.

Which brings us back to Halloween 2011 and its awful timing. My first week back to work, landing on a Monday {the night we play in a volleyball league}, following the weekend of one of my best friend's bachelorette party {which I helped plan and hosted here at the house.}

Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining about any of these things. I'm so thankful to have a wonderful job, coaching volleyball for kids in the community. I love the friends I've met through volleyball, and that Ryan and I get to play together on a team...so fun. And Bex's bachelorette party {they call it a 'hen's night' here in NZ} was an absolute blast.

It's just all these things didn't leave much time for Ryan and me to channel our Halloween creativity skills into fantastic costumes for ourselves. Ryan saw the black and white tutus I made and the super cute orange and black tutus my mom made for the girls and sent over the ocean {Thanks, Mom!}...and came up with our family's costumes. It's not epic, but it's better than nothin. We even wore the tutus to volleyball after trick or treating. Gave everyone a good chuckle.

At least there's a theme...

My dancing queen, ready for candy collecting!

Our friend, Shelly {Jessie from Toy Story}, organized trick or treating for the kiddos. She's from Missouri and misses all the hoopla of an American Halloween just like we do. {She also writes a really great blog, 1 sock missing.} Halloween is not huge here in New Zealand. In fact, Shelly went around the homes on her street the week before to let them know we were coming. If she hadn't, most probably would not have had candy. 

Handing out pre-trick or treating candy...just in case.

Gotta love a man confident enough to wear his daughter's stuff in public. Ryan will do anything to give his girls great memories {and make everyone laugh.}

A girl, her dad, and their tutus.

Shelly was so amazing with the kids. They were mesmerized.

Reesie and Bex.

Our first house. She was SO surprised to see so many kidlets dressed up!

Seeing this next picture come out blurry was such a bummer. I was so in love with the expression on Reese's face, I couldn't bear to hit 'delete'. She was so proud of all her candy!

So I worked some picnik magic...it's dark, but I'm in love. {I'm still stunned it's a free site.}

An ongoing Halloween tradition...Ryan stealing checking the girls' candy.

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In other Daly news...we're getting very close to a trip back, back to Cali, Cali. We are beyond excited! The girls and I made a paper chain to count down how many times we have to go to bed before we get on the airplane.

16 more sleeps!!