Happy HALL-oween:

I hope everyone has had a safe and fun Halloween! 

We sure did! 

Love our little witch! 

We were Bewitched!

We were so excited to take Charli Trick -or- Treating for the first time this evening!

Last year with her only being 3 months old she just helped us pass out candy to all of the little kiddos! 

She was a little unsure as to what we were doing, but followed along as we walked around our 

cul de sac (we just went to our neighbors houses)

Charli knocking on our next door neighbors door. 

This was her very first house! 

After we went to a couple of houses I think she finally got the hint of what to do...

She seriously looks like such a big kid! 

 It is so hard to believe that this was her just one year ago...

Charli's First Halloween

'The Great Pumpkin Charli Hall'

From a Pumpkin to a little Witch... 

I think our little girls second Halloween was a success! 

I hope all of yours was too! 

Happy Halloween! 

HALL-oween Eve:

What better way to spend Halloween Eve than to have a festive Halloween play date with friends! 

 Our friends Leighton and Tallulah came over for some fun Halloween crafts and cookie making

I cut out pumpkins for the girls to color! 

(Charli's finished masterpiece!)

And this is a serving plate that I made (pictured above with the cupcakes) and I had all of the supplies for Leighton to make one today for her family!

(I will have the instructions below)

 After some coloring and crafting it was time to make some cookies...

These two little girls were so excited and both loved helping!

Charli doing her Halloween cut-outs! 

(having gluten problems means you go with what you can find... so it was chocolate chip cookies instead of sugar cookies)

Tallulah making her cookies!

The girls' finished product! 

And after they both ate all of their lunch, they got to eat their special cookie they made...

And they both ate every last piece! ;)

Thanks again for coming over to play! 

Happy Halloween Eve!

***

DIY Plate:

Have a plate or serving tray (cleaned with soap and water), acrylic craft paint, sharpie, and stencils if you want

Then you need cute baby feet! ;)

I painted Charli's feet with the orange acrylic paint, pressed them to the plate, let dry...

Then I stenciled my "Trick" and my "Treat" (hand doing everything else)- all with a sharpie...

After you are finished, bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes so the sharpie and paint set

And Voila! 

The perfect serving plate for any Halloween party! 

FYI: I am in LOVE with how it turned out! :)

My Style: Being Festive with Fashion:

If you could tell from our Pumpkin Patching, Pumpkin Carving, and even the Zoo... 

You would notice one thing in common... We are in orange and black! ;)

I love being festive with my fashion during the holidays or any special event

so today there was no exception...

With Halloween being tomorrow, we are having a couple of our  friends over for a little 'Halloween play date' so I wanted to share my outfit of choice for today...

I love the look of a simple maxi dress, cardigan, and scarf. This is a very cute and comfy way to transfer your maxi dresses from Spring/Summer to Fall/Winter! 

Dress: bar III (from Macy's) | Cardigan: J.Crew | Scarf: Target

Thanks for stopping by!

xoxo Traci

Our HALL-oween Decor:

My Husband Someone once told me that "Halloween can't be all about Pottery Barn ya know"... 

(Which by the way, I think this is the funniest thing my husband has said, haha.. He knows me well! 
I can't help it, I like to keep it classy!)

Well guess what? 

Every holiday for this girl is all about Pottery Barn. I can't help it, it is one of my favorite stores and is 100% my taste and style. 

Yes, Pottery Barn can be expensive (you just have to know when the sales are), but that is also why I do a lot of DIY stuff, because I know I can make things that look "Pottery Barn" and it is so much cheaper (and fun)! 

Any who... We got all of our Halloween decorations up over the weekend, besides these few things that I did earlier in the month. 

So here is a glimpse into what our 'Spooky' home looks like this season! ;)

(and you will notice there are actually some spooky things up in our yard because the husband "won" due to the decoration contest in the neigborhood... ((me rolling me eyes))...) ;)

BOO banner I made

BOO wreath I made last year

Mommy's Second Annual painted pumpkin for our family! :)

(I will continue to make this pumpkin every year!)

I am absolutely in love with Charli's little pumpkin that she painted! 

Charli and Daddy's pumpkins, and another little pumpkin I did

A couple of the things Steven put out...

(And this witch flies around and makes scarey noises) 

If you know me pretty well, you know I HATE being scared and am the biggest scaredy cat around... 

So yeah, this is creepy and I do not like it one bit... 

But I guess that is what a marriage is, right? Making each other happy (and if it means a couple of scary decorations for my husband on Halloween, then so be it... I just won't be going outside at night alone)! :)

my DIY ghosts (Instructions below)

DIY Ghosts:

I used Christmas ornaments I had, white fabric, ribbon, and felt squares

I cut the felt squares into two pieces, made a slit in the middle on both pieces so the ornament ring could poke through, and just wrapped the felt around the ornament (holding it together with my hands) 

 I then took a piece of white fabric that I cut, that also had a slit in the middle (placing the ornament ring into that slit) and wrapped the fabric around the felt and tieing it off with black ribbon... voila!

 Proceed with making your little ghost faces with a black sharpie!

It's almost Halloween...

Happy Decorating! 

Weekend Update: The perfect kind of Fall Weekend:

Maybe it was the cool crisp fall weather

The time spent together with my little family

The fun and laughter we shared

The pumpkins that were carved

The getting into Halloween spirit and decorating

Hocus Pocus being on... TWICE!

The baked pumpkin seeds

The memories that were made...

Or it was quite possibly all of those combined that made this weekend the perfect kind of Fall weekend!

Our weekend started off Friday afternoon when Steven got home from work. We headed to a park on base to let Charli run around and be a "kid" (wait... is that even possible? She's just a baby right?)... Nope, not one bit and it makes my heart melt with sadness because she is growing up so fast right before my very eyes, but it also makes my heart melt with pure joy as I watch her grow and learn with every new day!

Charli had an absolute blast at the park...

From the swings...

To the slides...

To the sand...

To the climbing...

To being with Daddy...

It was the perfect afternoon spent with my gorgeous little family!

The park was followed by ordering some pizza, making a pallet on the floor upstairs in the play room, and having Charli's first family movie night! 

Watching the new special edition Little Mermaid that Nana and Papa bought for her!

And she did amazing! She sat quietly and ate and watched (making fish faces the entire time), until she was done with dinner, then she was up, walking around but still paying some attention to the movie, until the singing parts... She was glued... until the singing parts were over, then she cried... So the rest of the movie was spent fast forwarding to all of the singing parts! haha! All in all, she did so good on her first family movie night, and I am thinking we may need to watch Finding Nemo next! ;)

Perfect Family Friday!

Saturday morning we woke up to Daddy making breakfast for us girls (luckiest girls around), then after getting ready we hopped in the car for our first trip to the Riverbank Zoo in Columbia, SC! 

It was also 'Boo at the Zoo', but with Charli still being little going to the Zoo at night time was not in our cards... But we still got to enjoy all of the decorations for Halloween!

First stop at the Zoo... The Kangaroos...

Next up...

The Gorilla

Then it was off to 'Africa'...

Next stop was the Aquarium they had. And with Charli's love for water and fishies...

(clearly, as you can see...) ;) making a 'fish face'

She was in Heaven!! 

She was running around pointing to everything, saying 'fish' and making her fish face! 

 After the Aquarium section we headed to see the Giraffe's!!! 

And this trip to the Zoo we fed them!!

And so did Charli...

Yay for Giraffe's, we had an absolute blast! 

Our last stop of animals was to the 'Farm'...

A Cow says Moo...

But What does the Fox say?! 

 After we saw all of the animals we did a little walking around and let Charli go on the Carousal...

She wasn't quite sure at first

And then really didn't want to be on it... 

But it was almost about to start and we knew as soon as it did she would be fine...

 And we were right! 

Such a big girl these days!

After the Carousal we checked out the River that the Zoo sits on

Then headed out! 

It was a perfect day and I am so glad we decided to make the trip! 

After the Zoo we headed to see some friends who were camping at a camp ground in Columbia over the weekend. We drank some beers, sat by the camp fire, and shared lots of laughs! 

Perfect end to a Perfect Saturday!

Sunday morning we all ended up sleeping in and missing church. Steven made waffles for breakfast, we lounged in our PJ's for a good while,  and then headed outside to do some Halloween decorating!

Charli also said her very first 'sentence'... "Bye Bye DaDa" and said our neighbor's dogs name when she saw her... "Didee" (Dixie). It is seriously the freaking cutest word I have ever heard! :) 

After nap we headed back outside to carve and paint our pumpkins...

Charli was such a big help this year for Daddy... 

 And after Daddy got the pumpkin all carved and Mommy finished painting her pumpkin, we let Charli do a little painting of her own on her very own pumpkin!

Masterpiece I tell you!

After we finished up with the pumpkins we headed out for the perfect Sunday stroll through the neighborhood looking at all of the houses decorated for Halloween (our neighborhood does a house decorating contest for the holidays)... 

So Steven wanted to scope out his competition...

Then we walked down the dock to catch the sun setting over the river

And our Sunday ended with putting Charli to bed, relaxing on the couch, drinking wine, and eating pumpkin seeds with my husband! 

That my friends is the perfect kind of Fall weekend if you ask me! 

I hope your Fall weekend was perfect in every way as well! 

Happy Monday!