A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words

It happened a little while ago, but this picture sums up how Annie felt about her birthday:

Annie's birthday this year included her two favorite things--ice cream cones and her neighbor/1st cousin once removed, Emma. Annie got to have a little party, and Emma even brought a present. It was a tutu made by Emma's oh-so-creative mother. For Annie, it was love at first sight. Emma also brought a card that had a message, transcribed by her mother. The message was "Go to a tent." She and Annie love to make tents when Emma comes over, so I think that message was kind of a summary of all the great times they've had together.
Aaron and I really splurged and found Annie a $1 princess backpack at DI. I think it was really a little blessing for Annie that I found it.

I would dare to say that the little ladies had a good time, even though Emma did say after eating the treats, "My stomach is dead."


Annie and I did practice blowing out imaginary candles before the big day, but, as the video shows, I just don't think she quite had the lung capacity to really do the job. We were glad to have an experienced 4 year old to help us out.


Happy Birthday to our wonderful, happy, adorable little munchkin!!

Halloween 2011

Halloween happened at the Dennis household this year. Annie was definitely more aware of the whole concept of Halloween. She didn't understand the glories of free candy last year, but let's reminisce about how cute she looked as a one year old in her little spider costume.


This year's costume was less creative but still quite adorable.


We hit up the ward trunk-or-treat, and Annie got way more candy than a two year old can responsibly consume. Good thing Aaron and I are here to help out. Annie got to cruise the cars with her friend and fellow princess, Emma.

Two days ago, Annie learned to say "trick or treat" from watching Dora. Thank you for parenting for me, Dora. That will come in handy next year. I'm glad she learned to say it in English.

The trunk-or-treat was on the Thursday before Halloween, so on Halloween itself we celebrated by carving a pumpkin. I had visions of Annie digging into the pumpkin and pulling out the guts and loving it. In reality, she thought it was icky, and Aaron and I did all the work.


But she did like the end result. We asked Annie if she wanted a sad face or a happy face on the pumpkin. She chose sad. She thought it was really cool to see the pumpkin on our step when we came home from somewhere. It was definitely worth the $1.80 I spent on it at Walmart.