It's been a hard-knocked life ALL WEEK!

I've always loved Halloween. It goes back to my mom and her excitement and dedication to this particular holiday. She always made the coolest most creative costumes for us. Like the time I was a martian beauty pageant winner, Miss Mars, in which my mom Elmer-school-glued-green Cheerios all over my face and slapped a bald cap on my head. Total project runway. The point is, she put a lot of thought into it.

My mom's enthusiasm has rubbed off on me. I now realize why my mom was such a nutcase over the years--it's without a doubt the most exciting day of the year. Costume choice in our family is a topic of conversation that usually starts in August. Ridiculous, I know. In Bella's case, her mind was made up back in May when she took one look at the new locket necklace my sister purchased. Oops, I'm sorry-- it's not a necklace, it's a Juicy Couture necklace. Which is exactly what Bella says to anyone who dares to call it a necklace. Thanks, Gabe.

So yeah, she saw the "Annie-esque" locket necklace and decided right then and there that she wanted to be Annie for Halloween. Which was fine by me, since she loved the movie and the music anyway. My sister, god bless her, even put teeny, tiny pictures of our family inside the locket necklace--how awesome is that? You rock Gabey, thank you. You're going to be an awesome mom one day.



Of course, no Annie would be complete without a loyal dog!



Mia, on the other hand, had much less of a choice in the matter--seeing as she barely talks and all. Although, to my credit, I honorably chose something on her behalf--a cute little black cat. Dude, Mia goes BONKERS over cats. Every time she sees one she squeals, claps, and does a stomp yer' feet kinda dance. How could I not? Unlike my mom, I cannot sew at all, so I left it up to the geniuses over at Halloween Headquarters to help me find the purrfect feline attire.



I remember a time in college when I was so poor I handed out my canned goods to the kids who dared knock on our white trash door. Seriously, green beans? You betcha. I must have been drunk. I've come a long way since that Halloween. This year, Eugene thought he would be sensible and buy the candy from Costco. LIKE A 10 LB. BAG. The worst part about it, he bought the bag three weeks ago. Which means we had about 2lbs. left over to hand out. Damn Halloween. I keep justifying it because the portions are so small. C'mon Gina....line all those teeny tiny Snickers bites up and whatta ya get? A freakin' chocolate footlong!

As much as I love Halloween, I've found the week prior tends to be the busiest week of the year. We played dress-up 3 times before the actual day arrived. Between the library story time, Mia's sing-along class, my gym, Bella's pre-school and the local nursing home I was exhausted. Knowing that Mia would tire of her costume long before Halloween arrived, she donned a pirate dress and a penguin at the above mentioned events. Bella wouldn't budge though. She insisted on being Annie for each event. My sister, fashion genius and hair stylist extraordinaire, put Bella's hair in curlers THREE times this week. Believe me, I tried to get her to wear a red curly clown wig- but man, the girl's got some standards.

Looking back on the week I think we've had about 27 "hard knock life" dance parties. Here's #17:

I love how Mia HAD to have a couple curlers in her hair just like Bella.



I remember what it's like to sleep in sponge curlers and it's not easy. But she did it like a champ. I even peeked in on Bella while she was sleeping and found her face buried into her pillow, butt up in the air, sleeping on her hands. Hah. Beauty is pain.

So, yeah, this week? Super busy. Oh and how can I forget the 1AM trip to the emergency room with Mia. She had a nastly fall off of a chair onto our brick floor. Lovely. After carefully watching her, my mom and I both assessed that she was fine. About two hours after she fell asleep she woke up in a screaming fit. Which could have easily been a nightmare but also could have been a concussion. Not wanting to chance it, my sister and I took her in (Eugene was out of town for work, so you could imagine how he felt). We were seen fairly quickly and after a catscan and a check-up they concluded that she was fine. Pfew. Here she is in a teeny-tiny hospital gown that made me thankful this was the only time I was seeing it. I've always had a soft spot for kids in hospitals.



But no ounce of sleep deprivation could keep us from enjoying our Halloween. After a spooky brunch at our house, Eugene set up a make-shift studio and took some pics of Bella, Mia and my seriously handsome nephew Erik.









Mia did not like us adding whiskars and a black nose to her face at all, but I'll never forget her smile when she saw herself in the mirror. She was so excited. She kept looking at herself then looking at me almost as if to say, "woah, I'm a cat." Looking back, it was my favorite moment of the day. In fact, she kept the cat costume on all day long! I had to pry it off of her for naptime. While Mia recharged her batteries, Bella and I headed over to a birthday party at our neighbor's house.





Like my make shift Gryffindor Harry Potter costume? I really wanted Eugene and I to dress up as John and Kate (ya know, work the asian/caucasian combo) but Eugene was a party pooper and didn't dress up. Once Mia woke up, she was ready for more candy.

We headed out to Trick-or-Treat



The girls had so much fun. Mia didn't understand the meaning of just "one." She literally raided several neighbors' candy bowls. It was pretty cute. While we walked along I thought about all the Halloweens growing up here in Illinois. The leaves all over the ground, pumpkins everywhere, beautiful fall flowers, the smell of burning wood, this was Halloween. I've missed it and I'm glad that my girls got the chance to experience it.

After inhaling M&M's, tootsie rolls, licorice and hershey kisses (and that was just me) the girls found the energy for one more Halloween Hard Knock Life dance party.



Three minutes after this video was taken, we ALL passed out. Happy Halloween!