All Sugared Up - Eli the Dancing Man

Happy Halloween! I'm still catching up on photos, but here's a video of Eli dancing to the song that continues to be his favorite (Hey Soul Sister). I think he was on a sugar high after trick-or-treating. My favorite dance moves are the smooth spins :) This video was taken w/ my laptop webcam - you can tell Eli is having fun watching himself on the screen...

Eli dancing - Soul Sister Oct 2010 from Sarah on Vimeo.

Crazy Lion

I think we've gotten good use out of Eli's costume this year. He wore it on four different occasions in the last week. There was our church Halloween party last weekend, a friend's birthday party this week, and then trick-or-treating in the morning and afternoon today. Here are some of my favorite shots of the crazy lion :)

Here we are this morning at our playgroup get together - trick-or-treating in the Glencoe shops.

These are some of the kids that were there - others joined up with us later.

Eli's face when I asked him what a lion says - "ROAR!"

This is from this afternoon - we did some trick or treating in our neighborhood first... it was exhausting for the little guy!

We ended up carrying him the majority of the time.

And at one point, he put this lollipop in his mouth - wrapper still in tact. And refused to take it out (we finally got him to let us take the wrapper off when we got home, so he wouldn't just eat soggy paper)

Later we stopped by the Klearmans' neighborhood to see the kids in their costumes. Here's Caroline as a mermaid and Drew as Darth Vader.

And here's a lovely picture of all three of us :)

When we were home for the night, we took Eli's costume off - it was so warm today (close to 70 degrees - highly unusual for Chicago) that Eli didn't need to be bundled up under his costume. He thought it was hilarious to be "naky" even though he still had plenty on.

I love his chubby little legs! Hope you had a nice Halloween :)

Sugar High

I was catching up tonight, reading blogs on my Google Reader, when I saw a post on Zen Habits that made me laugh out loud: "Beat the Sugar Habit: 3 Steps to Cut Sweets (Mostly) Out of Your Life." I could only wish!!

The article first talks about what sugar does to your body - it increases fat storing, disrupts normal brain function, and decreases your overall health and makes you age quicker.

Great.

It then talks about how to make healthier choices. It's actually really helpful and a good reminder, on this Hallow's Eve, to not totally gorge on sweets just because it's Halloween. I don't usually keep too much chocolate around in my house on a regular basis since I have little self control. But this week, after I bought some bags of candy for the trick or treaters... I have been munching and munching... all the while increasing my fat storage, disrupting my brain function, and aging faster.

Darn! Maybe I'll turn over a new leaf next week. That mini Baby Ruth is calling my name...

Carving Pumpkins

Today we carved one of our pumpkins - Eli enjoyed standing on the stool and trying to help.

Ben used a template and carved this cat pattern - Eli LOVES it and kept saying, "kitty! kitty!" after we put the candle in and turned off the lights. We put it out on the porch and Eli kept running over to the door, looking out the window, and saying, "Hi! Hi! Hi Kitty!"

Later Eli entertained himself playing with his kitty stuffed animal and frog snuggly, talking to them, shoving them into his Elmo bucket and then pulling them out again. Whatever makes him happy :)

And last night we went to our ward's Halloween party. Eli LOVED wearing his crazy lion costume and carrying the Elmo bucket around. I'm sure I'll have more lion pictures to post next week...

Eli the Caterpillar

Happy Halloween! This morning we met up with the church kids for a costume parade at the park and then joined in with the nearby trick-or-treating at local businesses. Eli was a bright blue caterpillar and we're not sure if he loved being in the costume...it kind of swallowed him up :) He was a pretty good sport though. We thought he looked so cute!