First Halloween

Some people only celebrate Halloween one day a year. However, Miss Ella celebrated for a week and a half, showing off her cute costume. Ella's Halloween extravaganza started the week prior to Oct 31 with Boo at the Zoo. This was the Jerrys first time at this event. After normal operating hours, the St. Louis Zoo opened back up for a frightful night. Ella, with a huge group of friends, roamed the grounds, avoiding monsters and zombies, got lost in fog, and watched a scary (not really) kids show at the petting zoo where the entertainers were clearly paid in drugs and not a paycheck.

To make sure she had plenty of treats, the night before Halloween Ella ventured to Perryville. A round of visits to Grandma's and some Aunts and Uncles scored some good snacks. This was much appreciated by Ella's parents as they got to gobble them up!

For the actual Halloween day, stealing tradition from Great Grandparent Nana, Ella's parents opened their house to family to visit with a never ending bowl of chili and unlimited pictures of Ella in her costume (did we mention what a cute giraffe she was?) Many family members stopped by and several great photos were captured.

To cap off Halloween, when darkness fell, Ella went out for her first offical trick-or-treat in the neighborhood. Thanks to Dad and his history of trick-or-treating in St. Louis, she was primed with her jokes - "Why aren't griaffes invited to parties?" ...Wait for it... "Because they are a pain in the neck!" Ella only visited a few next door neighbors to say hi, but it was a ton of fun for Mom and Dad, meanwhile a bit awkward when the neighbors clearly saw it was them begging for candy since Ella was too young to enjoy the sugar and popcorn balls.

During all of these festivities, it was quite memorable reliving last year's Halloween events - as Stef started contractions at a friend's house party, went home thinking she was just crampy and not long after called Tim (who sobered up quicker than anyone's ever seen!) to let him know the contractions were 5 minutes apart and it was time to get to the hospital. We immediately rushed to the hospital. It was there, that we spent a few days drugging up Stef to stop the labor. Then our determined little Ella decided it was time to grow on the outside. : )