WDW Day 3: Animal Kingdom

We spent our third day in Animal Kingdom. It was cloudy and 80, but felt a little humid. This park definitely felt more crowded, but only because the walkways aren't as wide as in other parks. Even though it felt more crowded, everything was still manageable and fun.

We started the day with the safari ride and saw lots of cool animals. Elina was excited to see real wildebeest since we had just watched "The Lion King" again recently. We spent a lot of time in Dinoland because it's setup like a carnival. So Elina got on some rides and played carnival games. Of course, if you play carnival games, you have to win some stuffed animals. Elina was so proud of herself for winning 2 (although we were less than thrilled to add more stuffed animals to our home)!

Here are our faves/least faves:

ELINA
Fave: Face painting. As many of you know, Elina didn't get her face painted until recently. In Disney, the face painting is more elaborate (also more expensive), so I was hoping Elina would want to get it done while we were there. Luckily, she was excited and ready to get her face painted! She picked this butterfly face and it turned out beautifully. (Even J wanted her face painted, so she got a Tinkerbell face.)


Least fave: Tummy ache. Elina had a little tummy ache before lunchtime so she was acting sad and whiny for awhile.
US
Faves: (1) Festival of the Lion King. This was an amazing show featuring all the songs from "The Lion King" with singers, dancers, acrobats, and floats. It was so entertaining...we were all tapping our feet and clapping our hands. I think it was the best show we saw the entire time! (2) Standing in short lines to see Daisy Duck. We managed to run out of the Festival of the Lion King in time to see Daisy right away. We were so excited to see her because Elina really likes her and because she was the last of the Mickey group that we needed to see.
Least Fave: Elina's tummy ache.

The one thing that was amazing this day was that Eli fell asleep in a motionless stroller for almost 90 minutes. This is unheard of with my kids. They usually only sleep in moving vehicles and they can only keep sleeping if the vehicle maintains movement. Eli always opens his eyes the minute the car is parked. It's so annoying. Eli also always manages to wake up after one sleep cycle, about 30 minutes. I guess Eli was getting too tired to care about where he slept.

So here is a nice montage of Uncle C moments while we were at Animal Kingdom. We miss you, C!!
Tomorrow...The first day of Magic Kingdom!

WDW Day 2: Epcot

On day 2, we went to Epcot. It was another beautiful day, although the sun came out in the afternoon and heated things up a bit. It really wasn't THAT awful, but compared to the day before, it was warmer than we liked. Even though a lot of people consider Epcot boring, B and I have always enjoyed it for the science-y, hands-on exhibits.

One major highlight was that we got to see Donald Duck without a line. Right when we went toward the Mexico pavilion, Donald came out for pictures! It was such perfect timing. Elina also got to meet her first princess and prince in Epcot...Jasmine and Aladdin. Even though Jasmine isn't her favorite princess, she was star-struck because the princesses talk back. I really don't like the rule that head characters (characters with full costumes over their heads) don't talk, only characters like princesses do. Elina's not totally into princesses, but because the princesses talk to you, she was more excited about meeting them on this trip.
Another highlight was that my vacay buddy, C, met up with us in Epcot. He drove up from Miami just to spend a few days with me and my family. C and I last met up in Boston in April, so it was nice to see him again! The kids fell in love with him (who wouldn't?)

So here's a breakdown of what our faves and least faves were...

ELINA
Faves: (1) Spaceship Earth. This ride has been updated so that there's an interactive touchscreen in your vehicle. You fill out a questionnaire based on your likes and dislikes and at the end you can see digital images of yourself pasted onto cartoon bodies. Elina loved seeing her face on a big screen. (2) Gran Fiesta Tour. This is the boat ride in Mexico starring the Three Caballeros (one of them is Donald Duck). (3) Turtle Talk with Crush. This was the most amazing show...definitely the fave for all of us. It's an animated, interactive show where Crush (the turtle from Nemo) can see and hear you, and talk back. Elina got to sit in the front row with other kids, but she didn't get called on to ask Crush a question. It was so cute because she had her hand raised, just like everyone else. After the show, I asked her what her question was and she said she didn't have one! Thank goodness they didn't call on her. She was just raising her hand because everyone else had their hands raised!! Yikes!

Least Fave: Illuminations. This is the great big fireworks show at the World Showcase at the end of the night. I thought Elina would love it, but she hated it. She started out sitting on C's shoulders to get a better view and ended up going to B into a nearby gift shop to watch the fireworks from indoors. C said that she was shaking the whole time she was on his shoulders. She was really really scared! Poor thing!

US
Fave: Turtle Talk with Crush. (same as above)

Least Fave: (1) Universe of Energy. My parents, Eli, Elina, and I went on this slow ride while the "young kids" (A, J, and B) rode the thrill rides (Test Track and Mission: Space). This was SOOO slow and Elina didn't like some of the scarier, widescreen sequences. (2) Yakitori House. The food at this counter service place in the Japan pavilion was kind of a disappointment, but the drum show afterwards was worth the visit.

Tomorrow...Animal Kingdom!

WDW Day 1: Hollywood Studios

Our first day at Disney was pretty special. We started the day off with a character breakfast at Ohana's Restaurant in The Polynesian Resort by Magic Kingdom. We wanted to do one character meal and we wanted to have characters that would appeal to both Elina and Eli. The one we chose had Lilo, Stitch, Mickey, and Pluto. For those of you who don't remember, Elina had a Lilo and Stitch party for her 3rd birthday and she's seen their movies a million times. She also loves the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse...not as much as she used to, but she still loves Minnie and Daisy. Eli is also a big fan of the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse...although he calls Mickey "Gaga," which is weird because it doesn't even sound like "Mickey." Oh well.

Once we got to the breakfast and saw the characters we were all a little star struck. I couldn't believe how excited I was to see Mickey in real life. Well, not "real life," but you know what I mean. My sisters were really excited, too. The characters came around multiple times to sign autograph books and to take pictures. Then there was a conga line around the restaurant. It was SO much fun. Elina was a little speechless, but happy...Eli, on the other hand, was scared out of his mind. He didn't want anything to do with the characters, especially Stitch.

The food was yummy and served family style. It was all-you-can eat, even though none of us got around to getting a second helping. There were Mickey waffles, potatoes, bacon, biscuits, sausage, and eggs. They also serve this mango passion fruit juice that is delicious! Even the service was excellent. The servers were very attentive and really nice. I would recommend this character meal to everyone. I'm glad we did the character meal first because it really put us in the Disney mentality. After this meal, we were all excited to go to the parks and meet characters. What an awesome way to start the trip!

Then we headed to Hollywood Studios (formerly MGM Studios). B ran to Toy Story Midway Mania (the most popular ride there) to secure fastpasses, while we took our time walking into the park. We happened upon Minnie Mouse so we got in line to see her. Elina was ecstatic! [On a side note, I have to say that one thing I DO love about Disney is their ability to maintain control and order. In the Minnie line, there was a Disney employee, known as a Cast Member (CM), standing at the end of the line. When someone came to stand in line, she would let that person get in front of her and then she'd stand directly behind that person. This way there is no confusion as to who is next in line.]

After this we moved onto the rides and shows in the park. To make these Disney posts less boring, I'm just going to list favorite and least favorite rides/shows for all of us.

ELINA
Faves: (1) The Beauty and Beast live show. This show was an excellent 30-minute version of the movie. The costumes, dancing, and singing were all great. (2) The Disney Playhouse live show. This show featured The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Little Einsteins, Handy Manny, and My Friends Tigger and Pooh. The kids only know of the Clubhouse show, but they didn't mind. Both our kids also looked really tired during this show (totally not participating), but Elina says that she enjoyed the show a lot. Go figure. Least Fave: The Great Movie Ride. This was just a WAY slow ride through famous movies. Elina kept asking, "Why is it going so slow?" You know it must've been going slow because Elina is not a thrill-seeker! There were lots of loud parts in the ride, too, so the kids didn't like that part either.

US
Faves: (1) Toy Story Midway Mania. This is Hollywood Studios' newest and most popular ride. It's one of those rides where you sit in a little car and you have to shoot things to get a high score. Instead of a gun, you pull on a string like you're shooting cannonballs out of a cannon. It's an awesome interactive 3D ride with special effects like wind and water spray. Elina liked this ride the first time, but then the second time she realized she didn't like the special effects anymore. If it weren't for the long lines, we would ride this one all day long. And just for the record, I actually had a higher score than B on this one. This is a RARE occurrence. For those of you who don't know B as well, he wanted to keep going back onto the ride just so he could beat my score. It pains him if I have a higher score than he does on anything. Luckily, the 2nd time we went on Elina asked to sit on his lap so I managed to maintain my higher score. Otherwise, since B is an excellent video game player, he would've definitely beaten my score! (2) Osborne Family Spectacle of Lights. Millions of lights are synchronized to holiday music in this one part of the park. To make it even more magical, they have fake snow falling from the "sky." It was so amazing. Elina was just standing there with her arms out and eyes closed, facing the snow.

Least Fave: Nothing.

This was really our most enjoyable day at the parks. It was nice and cloudy, the crowds were manageable, and we didn't feel rushed to see everything since it's a smaller park. We managed to get our Mickey and Minnie character meets out of the way the first day, so we felt like we had accomplished a lot...we didn't have pressure to search for these headline characters anymore.

Tomorrow...Epcot!

Turkey Day 2009

This Thanksgiving was a little busy for us. We spent the holiday in Brownsville because we flew to and from Disney out of a town near Brownsville. This year was fun because we had a lot of our cousins visiting from the east coast. All of us haven't seen each other in a long time, so we did a lot of catching up. All we did in Brownsville was eat, chat, and play mahjong. Good times.

Because we didn't spend the holiday at home and because of the Disney trip, we couldn't do a lot of our usual Thanksgiving traditions. One thing we did last year was make Tom the Turkey. Every day Elina would tell me something she was thankful for and I would write it down for her. This year I had her write her words down. I had every intention of continuing the feathers in Disney, but we were so exhausted I didn't bother with it. So we finished the feathers after Thanksgiving this year. Kinda defeats the purpose, but I wanted to laminate Tom again like I did last year. So the thankful feathers before Disney are normal things like school, marbles, leaves. After Disney she wrote things like fairies, princesses, and teacups (because the Mad Tea Party teacup ride was her fave ride at Disney).

This year Elina also made a craft for school. The teacher asked each child what they were thankful for and wrote it on a piece of paper and laminated it. Elina said that she was thankful for her baby in my tummy. It was so sweet! The baby never came up when it came to writing stuff on Tom the Turkey, so I was surprised she would think of that.

So that's our turkey day in a nutshell. It didn't feel like Thanksgiving this year since we were all recovering from Disney, but it was still a great time for family and food!

We're Back!

I know you've all been sitting on pins and needles wondering why there haven't been any recent posts on the blog. Well, we just returned from a 5 day trip to Disneyworld with B, the kids, and my sisters and parents. We had a great time, but we're exhausted...which means all the posts about the trip will come eventually....slowly...one by one.

We knew we wanted to go during the "off season" and before the arrival of the new baby. I was wary because I've already been tired keeping up with the kids with this big belly, but everyone kept telling me to just bite the bullet since I'm not going to ever ever ever be any less tired once the new baby comes. KT kept telling me I should take advantage of this time since one child is still in my belly. Plus, our adult to child ratio was really good, so I figured we would be ok.

With all our busy schedules, the only week we could go was November 19-25. It wasn't my ideal time because it was so close to Thanksgiving, but we decided to give it a go. I had always dreamed about going in the "off season" because I didn't want to have to really make any plans. I wanted the parks to be dead and for us to be able to walk right onto the popular rides. You're probably wondering why I keep putting the words "off season" in quotes. It's because November is supposed to be the "off season," but after doing more research I found out that the week leading up to Thanksgiving was actually pretty busy. I didn't realize that nowadays, a lot of school districts give kids the entire week of Thanksgiving off. Can you believe that?? So that totally messed up our "off season" time. It was a real bummer.

Of course, because of this new information, I had to do an intense amount of research and reading. Apparently, there are crazy Disney people out there who create touring plans for the parks in order to hit the rides that they want to hit. A touring plan is a schedule you create for a park based on the popularity of rides. There was an obscene amount of information to go through. People analyze what days are best to visit which parks based on park schedules, extended park hours, school vacations, and a whole bunch of other factors.

Luckily, one of J's co-workers is a Disneyworld fanatic and was kind enough to help me make my touring plan and answer all my questions. She was a wonderful help to me because she really knows the ins and outs of Disney. I also read through some books, forums, and websites. I told B that I was giving myself an ulcer the shape of Mickey's head. I was having dreams and nightmares about Disney...it was terrible.

But in the end, all of that information really helped me maneuver around Disneyworld. For the most part, much of our trip was a success...meaning we got to see most of what we had planned on seeing and we managed to avoid some of the crowds.

On this trip we also opted to rent a villa a few miles away from Disneyworld rather than to stay in a hotel. We remembered our Bahamas sleeping situation, so we knew this time we wanted the kids to have their own separate sleeping spots this time...especially because we were going to the parks 5 days in a row. It was nice to have our own 4 bedroom house because there was more space, a full kitchen, and it was cheaper than getting 2 separate hotel rooms. But on the other hand, it's not as luxurious as staying at an on-site hotel. We had to take out our own trash and our rooms weren't cleaned every day, but I guess that's the price you have to pay if you want access to a fridge and a microwave. There are pros and cons to both and I'm still torn as to what I would choose next time.

Anyway, that's the intro to our Disney trip. Get ready for lots of posts and pictures about each of the parks. It was a long, exhausting trip, but totally worth it because the kids had a blast. Although I have to admit that by the end even they were ready to leave. On the last day we asked Elina, "Do you want to go home or go back to Disney?" She enthusiastically said, "Home!!" And the lack of sleep really got to Eli. He has turned into a bi-polar baby who cries and whines a lot. He is no longer our happy, mellow baby...now he cries and screams for me and throws a complete fit if I'm not there. It's scary! I want my other baby back! But he's been slowly improving. The day after we got back Eli slept a full 13 hours (never heard of before) and ate enough for 2 babies in the morning. The more he's been sleeping, the less frequent his fits have become. So hopefully he's recovering and getting his old personality back.

We're glad to be back, and we have lots of stories and pictures to share! Be prepared!

I'm Peppy, Aren't I?

Has this ever happened to you? Someone says something to you that seems like a compliment, but after some careful thought you realize it's a semi-insult. This happened to me last week with B.

So let's start from the beginning....

KT and I carpool the girls to school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Every other Tuesday we switch off and keep the girls for lunch and a craft/activity at our own houses until 2pm, so that the other mom can have a big chunk of time to do other things. With all the visitors we've had lately and all the errands I usually have to run, I haven't really enjoyed a long Tuesday without Elina in awhile. Last Tuesday was KT's turn with the girls and I didn't have anywhere far to go, so it was a nice, relaxing day with Eli. All we did was get Eli's haircut and run to the grocery store for a few things. After that we just took a walk and played at the house. And then KT was nice enough to keep Elina until 2:30pm to finish a craft.

Now let's get to the compliment/insult...

After dinner, the kids were playing in the playroom and we were sitting in there with them. I told B about my day and this was our conversation--

B: Oh, Elina wasn't with you today?
Me: No, KT kept her until 2:30pm.
B: No wonder you seem peppy today.
Me: [thinking it's a compliment...then after a minute of careful thought] What do you mean "peppy?"
B: Nothing...
Me: Do I normally seem tired?
B: Well...you just seem more "with it" today.

So basically, he was telling me "nicely" that I seemed more energetic and alive that day. It's funny because even though Elina is an easy preschooler to take care of, it's still exhausting. Sounds contradictory, doesn't it? Well, first of all, when she's home there's a constant stream of talking all day....which also means I'm constantly responding to her as well. Then when Eli goes down for a nap, Elina and I practice piano and practice reading. Then I put Elina in her room for 30 minutes so that I can eat lunch and relax a little. Afterwards, if Eli is still sleeping, I get Elina and then we read books or play games. See how it can be exhausting? Don't get me wrong though...I only accomplish this much with Elina on my good days. If it's not a good day, then I'll let her work on certain things alone. I definitely can't pull this off every day! But for the most part I try to do things with her because those are the things that can be difficult to do with Eli running around.

I think it's a pretty good excuse for not being "peppy" when my husband comes home from work, don't you? But I know what he's talking about though...it's definitely more easy to take care of one than it is two. Once #3 comes, I might never be peppy again! (I applaud all of you moms with 3 or more...I'll have to ask for advice when the time comes.)

Kiddie Park

My middle sister, A, is visiting from Taiwan for a few weeks, so we've been trying to do some fun things while she's here. We decided to check out the Kiddie Park. This is the oldest, functioning kids' amusement park in America. It's been open in San Antonio since 1925! It's a small place, but I always wanted to see if the kids would like it. Elina is usually scared of rides, but I figured now that she's 4, she's old enough to try the rides without an adult.

We went on a weekday morning, so there was almost no one else there. There was one other toddler there when we arrived, but other than that no one else showed up til later. On the one hand it's weird that the kids get on the rides all by themselves, but it's also cool because you have your own personal ride operator following you around to see what you want to get on. Depends on how you look at it, I guess. There were tons of fun rides, but it's just unfortunate (to us adults who get dizzy easily) that kids' rides usually just go in a circle. A and I were on the carousel with the kids and we just did not feel well on there. Elina was in heaven, while A and I were about to hurl. I guess that's the beauty of being young.

Here's video of one of the more original rides. The kids share a boat, but it's riding on real water. I thought that was pretty cool.


My other favorite ride was the kids on a horse carriage. They sat next to each other and shared the reins. So cute...although it was the loudest ride EVER!
The kids ended up having a great time. They don't care how old the rides are...they just know that it's lots of fun to ride without adults! The rides that Elina rode twice were the carousel, the flying saucer, and the school bus. The school bus didn't look like much, but it ended up being a crazy ride that had the kids smiling and laughing non-stop. All it would do was go around in this circle, but each time it turned, it was jerky and quick, so it would throw the kids around a bit and they loved it! You can see the sheer joy on their faces in this picture below. And here's a video clip of the "crazy" bus ride--


While we were there, Elina said, "I like this playground better than all the other playgrounds because it has more rides!" I guess we'll be going back real soon.

Pop!

Last week my belly officially "popped out." For those of you who don't know, this is the point of no return...the point where you physically can't squeeze into your regular pants anymore....the point where you have to wear maternity bottoms...the point where you cannot suck in your tummy any longer.

Even though my belly just popped out, I have to admit that I started wearing maternity pants a little earlier this time around. I am just getting too tired (and too old) to pretend like I'm not pregnant. What's the point? The maternity pants are WAY more comfy. Plus, if I wear maternity stuff then people will know that I'm pregnant, not just chubby.

Even Elina has started to notice how big my belly is getting. She'll just come over and hug my belly and try to listen to the baby. Today Elina drew a picture of me. First she drew a circle, then a baby inside the circle...then she colored over the baby since it's still in my tummy. Then she drew the rest of me. Is my tummy big, or what?

Bugs and a Boy

Last month Elina had her first school field trip to the Botanical Gardens to see the Big Bugs exhibit. This exhibit features lots of big bug sculptures throughout the gardens. They were really neat to see....and of course all the parents had to get class pictures.

The interesting thing was seeing how all the kids interacted with one another. We don't usually see this part since all we do is drop off and pick up our children. Elina plays the most with her classmates, D and S. D is a sweet boy who is "in love" with our little Elina. The teachers tell us that he follows her around, plays whatever she wants to play, and tries to hold her hand. (For those of you who don't know, Elina isn't a big hand-holder...even with her close friends. That's just not her style.) Anyway, I knew D had to be a sweet boy because Elina is pretty picky about the boys she plays with (since she's so overly cautious). On the field trip, the kids had to pair-up and hold hands, so D and Elina ended up holding hands....very cute. (Although B thinks that D and Elina need to spend some time apart...typical father response, right??)

It was a beautiful day and a lot of the parents attended the field trip as well. Lots of fun!

School Carnival

This past weekend was Elina's school Carnival, one of her school's big fundraisers. It was more fun than I thought it would be. They had lots of games and activities for little kids, so that both Elina and Eli could join in the fun. There were bounce houses, electric cars, a red choo-choo train, bean bag tosses, face painting, balloon animals, a cake walk, raffle drawings, and lots of food.

Eli loved the red choo-choo train, but for some reason, while he rode it, he seemed scared and worried. But once we got off the train, he was smiling and waving at the train passengers as they passed by. So weird! He loves seeing the train, but not riding it.


The kids also loved the electric cars. Elina loves driving Eli around. She enjoys protecting him whenever they are on rides. She always keeps her arm around him and says nice things to calm him down.

We were also so proud of Elina for getting her face painted. She usually doesn't like it at all. We asked her why and she said, "It's because they might accidentally get it into my mouth and I might end up eating it." Is that weird, or what?? Anyway, she decided on her own that she wanted a heart on her cheek. It's not much, but we were really proud of her.

Elina's favorite part was winning a cake in the cake walk. A and I had tried to get a cake on our own, but we didn't win one. So we tried again, this time with A, me, Eli, and Elina. I told A that if we didn't win with 4 people in the circle, then we didn't deserve to win. 'Lo and behold, they called out Elina's number (#17) and she won a cake! We had wanted her to pick 2 cakes that we had been eyeing, but she wouldn't have it. She chose her own cake...of course it was a chocolate cake with chocolate icing on it. She was so proud that she won!

What a fun day!

Halloween 2009

Halloween was lots of fun this year. Leading up to the holiday, we visited pumpkin patches, did fall/Halloween crafts, and painted and carved pumpkins. On Halloween, we had spaghetti with oozing eyeball meatballs and candy apples.

In this video the kids are painting pumpkins. What I love is the differences in technique. Elina is very careful and focused....Eli just loves to slap that paint on!


I really love the week leading up to Halloween because you get your kid to wear their costume as much as you can since this is the only time it's socially acceptable to walk around in a costume all day long.

This year Elina was inspired to be a cowgirl because she saw Elmo's Wild Wild West. I was glad she wanted to be a cowgirl because I remembered that my good friend KT had made her daughter, L, an adorable cowgirl costume for a previous Halloween. L wore the cowgirl costume 2 years ago, so I wasn't sure Elina would fit into it. Luckily, Elina is short enough that she could pull it off. The shirt was a little short, but it wasn't too noticeable. After that, it was easy to coordinate the rest of the family for our family costume theme. For Eli, I got a kids' cowboy vest at the consignment store for $4 and a cowboy hat at a garage sale for 25 cents. Other than that, Eli pretty much had all the other stuff. For me and B, we just borrowed cowboy hats from a friend. Pretty good deal this year, right?

So here are the events that Elina wore her costume for--
1. dance class,
2. the school costume parade,
3. playgroup Halloween party,
4. zoo boo (more on this later), and
5. trick-or-treating on Halloween.

I have to include this video from the Halloween dance class. Elina is doing the Boogie-Woogie and she looks so cute doing it! The idea is that you're supposed to "push down" your knee with your finger.


I think we got pretty good use out of the costume, don't you?

This year we ventured out of our comfort zone and decided to try Zoo Boo at the zoo. We've always been a little wary because of the crowds, but this year Elina's older so I figured it might be worth it. It always stinks to take your kids to crowded events and then they don't even enjoy themselves.

It turned out to be a really fun night at the zoo. The lines to get in were horrendous, but we really lucked out. I decided to ask one of the employees about where to line up, since we are season pass holders and we had already bought our Zoo Boo tickets. I figured there had to be a shorter line for us. Turned out there was a different line, but it was long as well. So the employee just whispered to me, "Just go to that window on the far right [that had no line] and tell them you already bought your tickets." I wasn't sure since there were so many people in line, but we went right up, handed the man our tickets and walked right in. It worked out beautifully! Since we got in so early, we managed to beat the crowds for a lot of the games and booths. The kids had a great time playing games and trick-or-treating, so I think we might go again next year. (If we can luck out again and avoid the line to get in!)
Trick-or-treating this year was great, too. B got to stay home to hand out candy since J and M came down from Austin to trick-or-treat with the kids. Since we had an extra cowboy hat, I made J wear it to keep the Western theme going. This year, Eli really got into trick-or-treating. After the first house, he was already saying, "Trick Treat." He loved running to the doors, saying "Trick Treat," and getting candy in his basket. After every house, he would show off his basket and smile. It was the cutest thing. Elina is a seasoned trick-or-treater, so she was doing it all quickly...but after awhile, she would wait for Eli. But Eli is such a slow walker, so she'd say, "Eliiiiiiiiii!" Unfortunately (and fortunately), Elina had to go potty 3/4 of the way around the block. So we quickly went to 2 more doors and then we all ran home. After that we just stayed home. It was a shorter trip this year, but it was really enough candy for the kids. Actually, Elina and Eli enjoyed handing out candy just as much as getting it, so it was a good night.

This video is really cute because you can hear Eli say, "Trick Treat." It's also cute because we made him go to our door to trick-or-treat, so when Elina comes out to hand the candy she looks very confused. She's looking for the "real kids" to hand candy out to...she wasn't expecting Eli.

We hope y'all had a wonderful Halloween, too!