Trick or Treat'n with the Rat

Isn't our little cow udderly adorable???

Tenley's Saturday began with a quick breakfast and then we fetched Grandma Susie and headed to downtown Claremont for the annual Village Venture. It's a fabulous street fair with all kinds of great arts, crafts and gifts as well as food, primo sales in the shops, and a children's area. We didn't even make it through half of the fair, but we did have a great lunch in an Italian restaurant, and we were eventually successful at getting Ten the one thing her heart desired that she continually pointed at from the moment we arrived: a balloon.

We had to leave Claremont far sooner than I would have liked to, but I had to dash back home and get Tenley and I changed so we could rush off to Anaheim and attend Mickey's Halloween Treat at Disney's California Adventure.

We met up with Doug and Tina and Tenley's future husband James (who was cuter than cute in his Eeyore costume), and Carin and Tim and their cutie Hannah (who was a lovely Snow White in a dress her Mommy did a bang up job on!) for dinner at Mari's and then off to the festivities at 7:30.

We made it to all 13 treat stations, and Doug & Tina achieved their goal of scoring enough candy so they wouldn't have to buy any to hand out on Halloween! James nodded off 1 hour into the event, and Hannah passed out with treat bag still in hand at 9. Tenley, on the other hand, had bloodshot eyes but was still wide awake and going strong when the event ended at 10:30. She simply refused to miss anything. We brought a stroller, but she insisted on being carried or holding our fingers and walking...needless to say, Jeff & I 's backs and shoulders are killing us.

We skipped having Tenley's picture taken with Mickey (dressed as Zorro, but looking remarkably like The Hamburgler) because the line was too long; but Mommy insisted on taking her picture with Bear from Bear in the Big Blue House. I think I was more excited about Bear than she was: Bear has got to be one of the coolest things to ever come out of the Henson Workshop - the Muppeteer inside has the ability to make such a huge array of facial expressions, and quite frankly Bear is just cute & cuddly. DCA has 3 real Bear costumes straight from Henson for the Playhouse Disney Live! show, and I was delighted that he was out for pictures. Tenley, on the other hand, was underwhelmed with Bear, but climbing out of our arms to go see Goliath the Lion from Jojo's Circus. I think she's only ever seen Jojo's Circus once, so Goliath must have just had kitty appeal.

The adults had a great time too: the people watching was stellar!! One poor guy, a grown adult I might add, was forced to wear a Donald Duck costume and was walking around looking suitably emasculated. Mrs. Potts has to be the most unflattering costume on anyone. It was nice to see that people found something to do with their Renaissance Faire costumes in the off season. I'm deeply concerned about the pack of Jedi Knights with the $200+ lightsabers (they actually light up and make the sound when you turn them on or swing them around) who were heatedly discussing Anakin's ability/inability with a lightsaber as they waited in line for candy. And I leave you all with this thought: just because a Jessica Rabbit costume comes in your size does not mean you should buy it and wear it!!!!!!!

See more pictures from Mickey's Halloween Treat at www.jeffandmichelle.net just click on "pictures"!