The end of October brought us a couple of three year olds. I wrote an entire post about the duo turning three- but I didn’t write about their birthday party!
I use that term loosely- I don’t think anyone else would have called it a birthday party, but the kids had fun. It was just my parents, Uncle M, Auntie L, Cousins G & E, my aunt, my cousin’s wife, and her three kids.
We felt like this was our last year to celebrate with a small gathering of family and friends, rather than a large to-do.
Thinking back, TT Dad and I had first asked the kids what kind of birthday party they wanted probably about 6 months ago. No matter when we asked, or how often we asked- their answers never changed. Zoey wanted a Bagel party, and Garrett wanted a Donut party.
You got it, kiddos.
If food makes a party, then we threw a gala. TT Dad picked up donuts from Neil’s Donuts, and bagels from Panera- and while we were at it, we ordered from their catering menu. We ordered sandwiches, which came with chips, and pickles. We also ordered coffee, lemonade, iced tea, and hot cocoa, which came with whipped cream, and chocolate chip marshmallows.
My aunt brought a quiche, and my parents brought macaroni salad, and a donut cake!
We were eating these sandwiches for DAYS.
That was about all the party planning we did. The kids played so nicely together, the adults had lots of time to chat, and catch up, and we actually got a picture of all the kids! 
Nonie & Pops also got them their birthday cupcakes from Barnes & Noble. Yum!
Just as they were coming down from their sugar high, Halloween arrived!
In an effort to simplify my life- I strongly encouraged my children to choose pirates as their 2017 costume.
How does this simplify things? Well, you see… I already had two pirate costumes. Specifically, a Jake and an Izzy costume- from Jake and the Neverland Pirates. Why? Well, we are months away from our first Disney Cruise- and in preparation for their Pirate Night festivities, I bought these costumes from an online Boy/Girl Twin auction page.
Back to Halloween- Luckily, threenager hadn’t quite kicked in yet, so it wasn’t all that difficult to convince the duo that Pirates would make some awesome costumes.
We continued our tradition of Free Scary Face pancakes on Halloween with Nonie & Pops, too!
So, that only left one issue. Where do we Trick or Treat?
We live in a wonderful neighborhood, but the houses are all set very far back from the road, and it’s on one very large hill. None of this makes it the ideal neighborhood for trick or treating with those aforementioned newly three year olds.
Lucky for us, Uncle M, Auntie L and Cousins G & E live in the perfect trick or treating neighborhood.
This year, we joined them. We started with pizza for dinner, and then hit the town. The kids were way more into Halloween this year! It was adorable. They loved ringing doorbells, saying trick or treat, and ‘Thank you!’ and then heading to the next house.
Garrett was struggling with choices- if he was asked to choose one or two pieces of candy from a large bowl, he would not be able to decide. At some point, he told me he was done, so we started back, while Zoey and the rest of the crew kept trucking along.
All in all, the night was a great success. We got home in time to pass out candy to a couple of groups of older kids, and the kids loved every minute of that, too.
We all had so much fun, but we were excited to welcome November! Especially me….