Halloween 2010

So as I mentioned in the last post, I finally decided on the twins dressing up as Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion for Halloween. I wanted them to dress up in matching costumes, and although Julia would be an adorable Tinkerbell, Flower, or Dorothy, the only corresponding one to those for James (Peter Pan, Bumble Bee, or Cowardly Lion) that would evoke any emotion in me other than a LOT of sympathy was the lion. And when my friend Leslie commented that James would make a cute lion, I kept thinking "James WOULD make a cute lion!" So when I went to choose costumes that kind of put that pair over the top.

And the dog wig ended up working after all...

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Julia makes her true feelings on the dog wig known.

We also did a photo shoot sans wig:


Cowardly lions still need their pacifiers.


"Sorry I thought this was an audition for Cheetahs."


"Hold on. I've got a call on my other tail."

All of a sudden the lion just rolled over and crawled away like he had things to do, hyenas to eat, jumperoos to jump in...

"Grrr! It's good I'm in my cage or I'd devour you!"

We took the babies to Googleween, Google's big Halloween bash. I had to find an empty carpeted area to change James since there was no way I was going to put him in his heavy lion costume and mane and then put him in a car seat. (That would have made him The Sweaty Lion.) We were also going to go to a twins Halloween costume event put on by the local twins organization, Gemini Crickets, but with Mark sick and my not looking forward to putting James into his costume, we decided to skip it. (My main reason for wanting to go was to see the other twins in costume, but I did have a small ulterior motive: seeing which 2 year old babies had good costumes so I could buy the clothes off their backs for next year!)

Since the babies eat dinner at 5:30 p.m. and go to sleep right afterwards, I thought trick or treating was a bad idea. Now I wish we'd done it, if only to bring the babies around to the few houses near us. This was our first Halloween in our first house so we were excited about getting trick or treaters. Mark and I had a debate over how many "funsize" candy bars each trick or treater should get. (Mark said ONE! Okay, Scrooge...) We ended up only having two groups of kids come by. Mark offered them all the candy they wanted.

Spotted at Googleween: Backwards Zack Galifianakis (Back Galifianakis?)

The babies at Googleween with some friends from Oz. There was a dog/lion face-off: Toto (in Dorothy's basket) kept staring at James's tail and James kept staring at Toto.

Wearing shoes is new for Julia so she had to try them out... in her mouth.

The Twins Visit Their First (and Second) Pumpkin Patch

A few weekends before Halloween, Mark, Grandma, the babies, and I all headed out to the pumpkin patch at Webb Ranch in Portola Valley. It was a much better pumpkin patch than one of those vacant lots on a busy street that will later transform to its next incarnation: Christmas Tree Lot. Webb Ranch also included a petting zoo and a haunted yurt house.

Anyway, I spent the morning and early afternoon making sure everyone was showered, picking out outfits for the babies, and figuring out when best to leave to maximize babies-in-a-good-mood time at the pumpkin patch. Fifteen minutes before we were scheduled to head out the door, Mark, who of course was not involved in any of the logistics, said, "Do we have to go today?" I would have killed him except I needed his camera. And thankfully we did go that day since it rained the following day.

The babies wore $20 pumpkin hats, snatched up on sale by Grandma ten months ago for $2, so they could blend in at the patch. They both also wore shoes, a big novelty for them. Julia kept hitting hers together, and James seemed very intrigued by hers as well (more on that to come!).

We had such a good time that when Poppa* arrived a few days later we all were game to go back (even Mark!) and we all wore the same exact outfits.

*Grandpa has elected to go by Poppa in the hopes the babies will say his name sooner.








James tries to eat Julia's shoe (he did this four times!), while Julia reaches a dirt clod to eat