Parkway Fall Festival and Halloween 2013

Turner decided months ago that she wanted to dress up as one of her favorite Disney characters, Doc McStuffins, for Halloween.

She and Mark started researching and found several examples online where people had pieced together the costume using clothes they had as opposed to purchasing a costume. The brainstorming ensued and a few hours later we had shoes, tights, skirt, and hair accessories. We ordered the doctor's kit and doctor's coat and we couldn't have been more pleased with the final result!

Fall Festival at our church was Wednesday night and trick-or-treating was Thursday night and we enjoyed these events to the fullest!  It makes for some tired mornings, but it's worth it!

While there are some pictures of games, etc. at the Fall Festival, the majority of the pictures are of Turner and her friends.  Some friends from church, some from school or dance class, and others that were "Miss Amy's house buddies" that Turner has really been missing.

Turner and Presleigh - sweet friends from Miss Amy's house, but even more special since Presleigh's mom and I grew up together.  These girls miss seeing each other daily!

Turner and Francie - friends from dance class, but also special because both of Francie's parents and I grew up together.  It's so fun for our girls to be buddies and share that common hometown connection.

Turner and Cameron - she has always been a groupie of this wonderful young man who is the talented drummer in our praise band.  These two have a super special relationship!

Turner and Huddy - sweet friends from Miss Amy's house

The real squealing started when she and Aubrey finally found each other among the crowds!

We are blessed to live on a street with lots of sweet friends to play with each afternoon.  This is the second year that a friend down the street has organized a hot dog and chili supper for the street prior to trick or treating.

Turner and Laurel and Kinsley

Turner and Anderson

For the second year in a row, Turner and down the street neighbor Anna have chosen the same costume without discussing or planning to dress alike!

And coincidentally the girls down the street had the same idea as well! Three Doc McStuffins and one Lamby little sister.  :)

Once we'd had our fill of hot dogs and chili, we headed out for some old fashioned walk-your-legs-off trick or treating.  Many families resort to going downtown to trick-or-treat en masse with the Auburn community, and some even choose to load up in a truck bed or trailer and be pulled around the neighborhood.  Our kids just love trick-or-treating like we did growing up - running as fast as they can from house to house for as long as everyone's legs will allow until the front porch lights go off.

This picture made me laugh - you can tell Turner had gotten hot and was getting tired - jacket is gone and she's walking calmly as opposed to running.

One house up the street has some particularly scary decorations and we were all shocked that all of the kids went to the door - the power of candy is strong!  Check out the hand reaching for Mark in the bottom right - he screamed at Mark shortly after this and it was pretty hilarious to me.  (Not so much to Mark...)

We even trick or treated at our buddy Jillian's house around the corner.

October is always the busiest month of the year to me with syrup sopping, fall festivals, fairs, Halloween, football season, and multiple work commitments for both me and Mark.  So it's a month that sometimes comes and goes in a flash and at times we are just happy to make it to the end!  But, it's also a month that we look forward to almost year round and it will be only a few weeks before Turner is asking when we can go back to the fair or we'll start planning her costume for next year.

Busy or not, we very much treasure these special memory making moments of Turner's childhood!