Tricks for Treats

Allie had a fun Howl-o-ween party at daycare yesterday.  When I picked her up, she came out with a candy corn scarf and I was given a copy of her picture wearing a ghost headband.

She also had the opportunity to trick or treat in the daycare lobby before we went home.  She got to do tricks and received treats (Halloween shaped dog treats) for them.  My favorite was the cat shape!  We also came home with a bag filled with more treats to enjoy for the rest of the evening.

I think Allie was liking Halloween after her daycare experience, but she definitely did not like the trick or treaters coming to our door.  She's too much of a guard dog to be okay with people knocking on our door and us opening it to them.

In an attempt to help the situation, I decided to sit on the porch with our bowl of candy so I could pass it out to children before they knocked on the door.  This helped a little, but Allie still wasn't comfortable with me talking to children (in the tone of voice I often use with her) while she was stuck inside.

Lucky for her, our two bags of candy ran out pretty fast.  I thought we were doing well quantity-wise until a group of about 15 children showed up.  Not surprisingly, we ran out of candy and didn't have any good substitutes in the house, although we did consider giving away fruit cups or granola bars before deciding to call it a night and turn off the porch light.  Allie was happy with this decision.

J went to work dressed as a scientist (he wore what he would normally wear) and I dressed in black and orange for work, complete with a pumpkin pin my mom sent for the holiday.

I'm realizing that we need to clean the bathroom mirror.

I hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!

Boo!

Happy Halloween!

And since it's Thursday, here's a Throwback Thursday photo of Allie's first day home with us.  She weighed a whopping 9 pounds.

Cuddle Monster

 

 

 

Trick or Treat

Instead of Trick or Treat, our church hosted Trunk or Treat this weekend.  I was a nurse:

We had some very elaborate costumes and car decorations.  Here is our senior pastor:

And here is our associate pastor with her husband:

We had 22 cars and over 70 children, so it was a big success!

Pumpkin Retrospective

One year ago, we had just brought home our new puppy.  Our first outing as a family was to volunteer at our church's pumpkin patch.  Allie discovered her first pumpkin while we were there:

She also got tuckered out by the end of our shift and fell asleep in my arms:

It's hard to believe how much she's grown and changed over the past year.  Sometimes I miss her cute puppy stage but then I'm reminded of the frustrations that went along with it - and I'm grateful to have our (mostly) well-behaved adult dog (although she will always be a puppy to me).  She still has a bit of a mischievous puppy streak in her, but that's only sometimes annoying and is often just plain funny.


2012

So here's to our adult puppy!


2013

And here's to a second year of our pumpkin family - Daddy, Mommy, and Allie.

Long Lines and Leaves

Recently, we purchased a long line to start training Allie with.  We're able to tie it around our waist when we're out in the yard so Allie starts to learn that she can be outside with us but can't leave the yard.  It gives her enough freedom to roam and explore but stops her from going too far and allows us to reel her in if she decides to run after a dog, squirrel, bird, or Vespa scooter (with or without a dog on it).

Today's yard time was spent raking leaves.  Here are some photos of the action.

Happy Fall!