Wordful Wednesday - Dragon Smiles

Even though you can't see her whole dragon ensemble in this picture, it's hands-down my favorite picture from Halloween. You don't see the floppy hands and feet or the shiny iridescent wings or - my favorite - the way the tail wiggled back and forth when she walked.

But this is the smile.

The smile that makes my bad days seem not so bad. The smile she busts out right after doing something bad. The smile that makes me less mad when she does something she knows she shouldn't. The smile that precedes belly laughs (from her and us).

The smile that says, "This is me. This is who I am. I'm a kid filled with joy and spunk and utter delight."

I love you, my little Kaylee Bug.

Wordful Wednesday - Ghosts from Halloween Past

If I said that we are the type of people that go all out for Halloween and really prepare ahead of time, I'd totally be lying to you.

So, let me tell you how it goes every year.

Each October, on either the 30th or the 31st, Dennis and I look at each other and say, "Uh. Well. Um, so what should we dress up as this year?"

Our first year of marriage we lived in married student housing at our university, and we were so excited to hand out candy to all the cute little kids. Unfortunately, when you go to the store to get a costume on the afternoon of October 31st, there's pretty much squat left to choose from.

I ended up with a black witch hat that had purple hair attached to it.

Dennis got a crazy Frankenstein mask, and I think we stuffed socks under the shoulders of his jacket to make him look even more...monster-ish?

Last year we pulled our costumes together literally a couple hours before we had to be somewhere for Halloween. I ended up going to my parents' house to snag my brother's baseball gear and I dressed up as a baseball player.

Dennis somehow ended up with a rather nasty looking beard, put a stuffed squirrel in it (not an actual stuffed squirrel - see picture below for what I'm talking about), wore a checkered shirt, and actually ended up being quite a believable lumberjack.

But, last year I did plan ahead for Kaylee. She was just 6 months old, so we didn't get too crazy, but boy, oh, boy was she ever the cutest little ladybug you ever did see.

And this year, her costume is even cuter. Just you wait and see.


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