Gilmores pose as Veggie Tales for the costume party

We Gilmores can't pass up a chance to dress up. The best part of Halloween is the chance to use our imaginations and creativity. This year Meilani declared that she wanted to be Larry the Cucumber so we followed suit. Appropriately, Mama was Bob the Tomato (didn't have to stuff the round belly) and Daddy was the not-so-junior Asparagus. We invested exactly $3 in these homemade costumes - after raiding Nana Maria's stash of remnant material and scrounging up some old hats and shirts.

Meilani's Cucumber costume was the real masterpiece. I made the design and cutouts and Nana sewed the edges. Meilani selected the button and ditched her Cucumber hat the night of the festivities.

We headed to our church's Pumpkin Patch on Friday night after dinner. They had quite the extravaganza complete with multiple bounce houses, games, prizes, food booths, popcorn and cotton candy and even a Cupcake Walk. Meilani was quite overwhelmed by all the people in crazy-weird costumes. She did enjoy the "Fishers of Men" game.

Meilani helped (watch) Daddy play the "Conquer Goliath" game. This is a familiar Bible story for her so she knew what to do.


Daddy was fascinated by the slingshot he got to use. (Can you say kid at heart?)

The two also had fun at the "Feed Noah's Animals" game. Let's just say Daddy should not pursue any hopes of playing softball. (Stick to running, babe!)

We saw some of favorite friends at the Pumpkin Patch, including Corban Pusey aka Mickey Mouse, who flashed a willing smile for the camera.

Not surprisingly, Meilani's favorite part of the Pumpkin Patch was not the games, the candy & prizes or any of the other big attractions. She really lit up when she saw the newly-opened playground at our church. Then she was in her element. She even got brave enough for a little jumping in the bounce house before we headed off the Grandma and Grandpa's house for a little Trick or Treat action.

The night was a lot of fun and we safely avoided the sugar high and later hangover. We tried out something Ericlee read about called the Halloween Trade-off. Earlier in the day I took Meilani to the Dollar Tree and JoAnn Fabrics & Crafts. She got to pick out about $10 worth of fun stuff. At the end of the night, we traded her bucket of candy (which we deposited in the trash) for a giant coloring book, 3 packs of crayons, a glow-in-the-dark silly pen, a Dora baton, stickers and a Jamba Juice card. We parents thought it was worth the extra cash and our 2-year-old didn't miss the sweets. It's a new tradition!