Charly Was a Little Lamb

Our Halloween started last Thursday night, when we brought Charly to Allison for Mom's public library festivities. Last year we brought her as a penguin and she enjoyed watching all the little kids in their costumes listening to scary stories. This year, the library had Minute to Win It games planned for the little ones. Charly doesn't quite have her hand-eye coordination down pat yet (although she's not too shabby) so she wasn't going to be playing anything. But the Grandmas like having her there and she has fun people-watching so we made the trip. Plus, Grandma and Grandpa Henning were going to keep her overnight because Kelli and I had parent-teacher conference planning time the following day.

On Sunday, Kelli decided it was time to clean and carve the pumpkins she bought in Gays Mills. Charly took one look at the guts we were pulling out and wanted nothing to do with it! She's a bit of a neat-freak.

Last year we did not get around to carving the pumpkins we bought in Wisconsin. That made Kelli sad. So this year, we carved. We didn't purchase a kit so I freehanded simple designs on them and we both cut away. Charly thought they were silly. We thought they looked pretty cool when lit, for being last minute.

While I cleaned and carved (and watched the Patriots get embarrassed by Pittsburgh), Kelli took our little lamb outside for some fresh air. She loves it outside, she loves neighbor John, and since Mel doesn't take the kids out as much now that the weather is getting cooler, we feel like she's trapped inside. We're trying to take advantage of as much of the nice weather as we can, before we're snowed in this winter. Not sure how that's going to go. I'm envisioning an army of snowmen standing guard in our front yard . . .

Tonight, we wanted to see how Charly would take to trick-or-treating and we were a little apprehensive since she's so shy and reserved around strangers. Last year we brought Charly to Allison and hung out at Mom and Dad's house but this year, we wanted to break her in. Ashley and Beau's neighborhood is built for trick-or-treating and Charly and Cruz seem to like each other, so we thought it'd be fun to let them trick-or-treat together.

Charly wasn't sure what to think of Cruz's hungry caterpillar antennae so we couldn't snap a picture of the two of them together but we were able to snap plenty as Charly went door to door scoring candy! Kelli or I held her for the first few doors, but after a while she caught on herself, even eagerly snatching candy out of happy ladies' hands and waving "bye bye" while she stuffed it in her bucket. It got colder as the night wore on, and Charly kind of stole Cruz's ride from him (his Radio Flyer wagon). After we were finished in Ashley and Beau's neighborhood we trekked across town to one of Kelli's coworkers, and then went home to finally feed Charly supper! At 8:30! It was a busy but fun night and Kelli even had watery eyes a few times watching Charly waddle up to doors and holding out her bucket for a treat.

I'm sure next year her and Cruz will be pros and it'll be our new little one strolling along beside in the wagon.