Halloween 2011

I've had my share of complaints about the Trader Joe's here in Summerlin. They are always out of stock of what I want, and not to mention unfriendly and unhelpful, unlike my neighborhood TJs in Pasadena where everyone knew me and the kids and always said hi and even knew my buying habits.

 In their defense, I'd been shopping at that one for over 15 years, so maybe I'll get there someday with the TJs here. I also got very spoiled by the fact that my TJs in Pasadena was 3 blocks away...and this one is a 15 minute drive. And yes, for all you folks who are thinking it, I am extremely grateful to even have a TJs in my town. :)

That being said, I was pleasantly surprised to find out the TJs here was doing a pumpkin carving event for free. We showed up Saturday morning to find hundreds of pumpkins had already been gutted by teens from one of the local high schools--all the kids had do was carve it. Awesome.

There was a line, but it moved quickly and the kids got to have all the fun of carving pumpkins--without me having to clean it all up afterward. A win-win, I say.

They even had a picture area. Helene was clearly not in the mood for pics.

 Face painting too!!

Hannah's Kindergarten class had a field trip to a local pumpkin patch. I love all the activities this school does (more on that in forthcoming posts) compared when Sammy was in school in Pasadena. Poor Sammy had one field trip in Kindergarten...and that was to Kidspace (which we had already been to many many times). And they only did a Costume Parade for Halloween....and no party.

The group of girls I was chaperoning.

Each child got to choose and take home a pumpkin. This was Hannah's.

Maze!

Hannah and me on a hayride.

Halloween picnic at school.

This is one of Sammy's classmates and I just had to take a picture. Yep, that's a boy dressed up as Little Red Riding Hood. Wig and all. Love it!

Hannah doing a little Halloween craft in class.

Hannah and her friend Abby. Love the crazy eyes.

This is the only picture I have of Halloween night. Helene refused to dress up. They still had a great time and got lots of candy. We had so many Trick or Treat-ers, we actually ran out of candy and I had to raid the kids' stash for more candy to hand out.

Happy Halloween!