Halloween 2009--Happy and Sad

After three and four years home with us, the girls are really getting into the swing of Halloween. It is so much fun for Kindergarteners and First Graders. Chloe and Pearl are still in the princess phase, so I told them it was time to move up to the "queen" level. Pearl decided to be the Queen of Hearts and after a couple hours of re-sizing her costume, she looked quite majestic. Chloe was dressed as the Queen of the Nile, Cleopatra. I thought it would be unique and original and that I would have fun with the make-up. Well, as it turned out, we ran into two other Cleopatra's at the park and Halloween parade and I am not as great a make-up artist as I thought I was. However, I was able to "fix" Chloe's running and smeared eyeliner in Photoshop. Take a look at the lovely picture below where she is crossing her eyes. Actually, out of character, Chloe was NOT in the mood to have her picture taken. What's the fun in all this dress-up and make-up if Mom can't get a picture to remember it by? At least Pearl was willing to pose for me and I had a lot of great shots of her.

On a very sad note, we learned when we arrived home from trick-or-treating, that our friend Catherine lost her husband Jimmy to the H1N1 flu. We had been anxiously reading updates whenever Catherine had time to post on Facebook and we were constantly thinking about what they must be going through. Catherine and Jimmy are adoptive parents like us. They adopted their little girl from China at the same time we adopted Chloe. As anxious parents waiting for referrals, we joined a support group called the "Sweet Peas" and Catherine and Jimmy were part of that group. Now it is with a heavy heart that we keep Catherine and her family in our thoughts as we wish them peace and comfort in their time of grief.







UPDATE: After the parade, we left the park and carnival early to go trick-or-treating. We just found out that Chloe won 1st prize and Pearl won 3rd prize for their Halloween costumes! I am so sorry they missed it.