Happy Halloween!

Violet had a great Halloween.  For the first time she understood the concept, could say trick or treat, thank you, and knew exactly what candy was.  She was so excited!

She chose her own costume, a blue butterfly princess.

It was super girly.  I tried to steer her towards a cat costume or a monster costume, but she was set on blue butterfly princess.  It ended up being pretty cute despite my reservations.

I even dressed up which Violet was thrilled about.  While I was supposed to be a cat, Violet pronounced me a "Kitty Princess".  Sounded good to me.  One house passed out full sized snicker bars to the adults that dressed up.  Sweet!

Note my awesome galaxy cat leggings!

We went trick or treating with one of Violet's good friends Grey and his family.

Trick or treating with a two year old is hard work.  I had to carry her half of the time and she's almost 30 pounds!  But it was much easier than last year and I suspect next year will be even easier.

Violet blooper:

Violet is picking a winner!

Violet Update

Violet is doing great.  She has become such the little talker and she is super strong willed.  She has been wanting to go on the ferris wheel at the Spectrum for a while and we always told her she had to wait until she was older.  Today we gave in.  Even I went (I'm not too fond of heights).  We all had a great time and she was not afraid at all.

Despite her expression, she had a great time.

We recently went to my cousin Tory's wedding in Scottsdale.  Violet's first road trip, and she did great.  Her favorite part was swimming every day.  She also got to meet her Aunt Rosanne, Uncle Al, and cousin Juliana for the first time.

In both pictures Violet is admiring her awesome rings she just received from Aunt Rosanne as a gift.

Violet recently went to her first birthday party at Chuck E Cheese which she loved.  Much like Mickey, she was super afraid of the mouse character.

Violet and her friend Emily.

Scary Chuck E. Cheese

We've been about six times to the pumpkin patch.  Violet is finally old enough for most of the rides.

Violet's enjoyed having Nana watch her occasionally when Eric and I are both at work.

She is not allowed to be a vet.

Today Violet got to play with a litter of 7 week old kittens.  She loved it and did really well overall except for one brief throwing of a kitten.

Fun in San Juan Capistrano

We spent the day today in old town San Juan Capistrano.  I work in that area but due to my hours, I don't really get a chance to explore it much on work days.  Through Violet's preschool, we got a deal on a short professional photo session and we chose the train depot in San Juan as our location.  Violet didn't have much patience, so the whole sitting only lasted about 15 minutes max.

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We bribed Violet to sit through the photo shoot with promises to go to the petting zoo in the area next.  I think that's the only reason we really got any photos at all.

Next up was the petting zoo.  The pony ride seemed more like a horse ride.

It was the biggest horse but Violet didn't seem afraid at all.

And as always she loved the corn.

A couple of weeks ago we went to a wedding reception of some work friends of Eric's.  Kids were welcome, so we brought Violet.  While I think she had a great time, we chased her around the whole evening.  I don't think I will be repeating that mistake anytime soon.

Making funny faces.

Playing with daddy.

Daddy days are really different than mommy days:

 

Hawaii

We just got back from visiting my friend Jenee and her family in Hawaii.  Violet and I really enjoyed it.  This year we stayed a couple of nights at the Disney Aulani resort which had awesome pools, lazy river, and beach.

The pools were a big hit.  Violet literally spent the entire last day in the pool.  I had to force her out for lunch and a snack.

 

 

Our hosts, the Odani's

The beach was fun too but it was more work and messier.

The room was super nice.  We had a one room villa with a kitchen, but with five people, we were all crammed in there.

And the room was maybe a little less nice after we left.  After being at the pool, I would take Violet's swimsuit off.  She wanted to color a bit before her bath.

I was really tired and let this go on a bit too long.  I sort of knew I was tempting fate at the time.  The next thing I heard was a bit of a scream from Violet and an "Uh oh!".  You guessed it, poop on the carpet.  Being a Disney hotel full of little kids, I can't imagine this is the first time that's happened but it was still gross but at the same time quite funny.

Then there was the character breakfast.  For $50 ($32 for adult, $18 per child), you could have a buffet breakfast and meet the disney characters.  Violet's been super into watching the Mickey Mouse Club cartoon so I figured this would be a big hit.  She did tell me beforehand that she did not want to meet Goofy because he was scary.

Suffice it to say, Violet was scared of all the characters and spent most of the brunch hiding or crying trying to get away from them.

Note Violet is not in this picture because she is too afraid of Minnie.

So the character breakfast was a complete waste of money.  I still shelled out an extra $32 for the pictures with the characters too.  At the end of breakfast, we waited for the bill to come.  After waiting quite a while, we noticed no one else was paying a bill either.  Since they knew who we were (I made the reservations for the brunch at the same time as the hotel reservations), we figured they would just know to charge the room, right?

So when we checked out, our charges were less than anticipated.  By scanning the bill we realized that there was no charge for the character breakfast and pictures with Mickey.  We had completely skipped out on paying the bill with Mickey and friends.  We fessed up and tried to correct it, but the hotel wouldn't fix it.  She said it was a bit of "Disney Magic".  Pretty awesome considering Violet spent the breakfast in fear and ate nothing.  

The awesome Aulani resort

Checking out the aquarium at the resort.

It was great to spent time with Jenee and her family.

Although our "girls trips" are no longer filled with trips to spa or getting pedicures, it's a different type of fun now with kids.  Violet loves her Auntie Jenee.  She always gives great Hello Kitty gifts too.

Violet is starting to take pictures with the real camera to mixed success.  She took these two pictures of us which we really liked.

But then she took an awful lot of pictures like this:

Despite the poop on the rug and stiffing Mickey on the bill, we had a great time.  We will be back to visit next year again I am sure, although I don't know if we can justify staying at the Aulani resort again.

 

On the drive back to Jenee's house Violet saw her first rainbow and she was awestruck. She told Daddy later that it had "beautiful colors". Sometimes I can't believe how well spoken she is.

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First day of preschool