The Bailey Family: Halloween and some more firsts for Noah!

I spent a ton of time online researching classes for the kids. Esme loved Little Gym so much when we lived in New Jersey and I was hoping there would be one near us...nope! Instead, I found a baby ballet class and a music class called Boppin' Bunnies. Noah started baby ballet as well but due to schedule conflicts he had to stop and we will have to find another class for him.

So, a month in, the kids are enrolled in swimming, ballet, monkey music and boppin bunnies. They also go to two play groups a week. I am looking in to joining tumble tots, which is supposedly a lot like Little Gym, but that will have to wait until the new year! Oh, and we go to monthly classical music with my baby concerts at St. Alfege chrurch! I am getting to be a busy Greenwich mummy!!

The first Halloweeny thing we did was attend a costume party in our baby ballet class. Esme dressed up as a Seahawks cheerleader (I couldn't be bothered with doing her hair and makeup for a 45 minute class!) and Noah was a little cow.

Esme really enjoys baby ballet. She especially likes the part where she gets to play with twinkle bear and put her to bed.

The next big event was gong to the Pumpkin Patch. We went to a pick your own farm called Garsons Surrey. Not only did we pick pumpkins, we got to pick sweet corn as well! We had a great time wandering the fields and looking through the shop. We ended up with a few new books- no surprise there!

A few from the corn field...

After we had our perfect pumpkins, we drove about an hour to a little town called Slindon. Slindon is known as the pumpkin capital of the UK and, as a Halloween mad American, I couldn't let the season pass without seeing it! We had no idea how small the town was and turned up without cash. Consequently, we weren't able to buy any pumpkins :( We arrived in the "cafe" to find that it was a church with little old women selling homemade biscuits and tea. They kindly gave us tea and cupcakes on the house and even gave the kids a crocheted pumpkin each. Such a warm welcome was unexpected and appreciated. We sent them a little something in the post, when we got home, to show our gratitude.

Upon arrival in Slindon, we noticed that Esme had developed an odd rash on her face. We freaked out for a second but it didn't bother her and it started fading after about an hour. It was probably a heat rash or a reaction to something at the farm.

Here are a few pictures we took in Slindon.

Next, I want to show you a few cute pictures from mid October. Esme and Noah have really started playing together- it melts my heart to see them get along so well!

Not only does she like to play with her baby brother, she wants to feed him, too! Messy but cute!

The first time we got really dressed up for Halloween was for the NCT Halloween party at St. Alfege Church. Our baby ballet instructor, Stephanie, told us about the party so we decided to go along. Not only did we win a raffle prize and score some cool Disney cars and stuffed animals for the kids, Noah won the best costume prize for his take on Einstein! We won a free photo shoot with a local photographer. I am pretty sure Esme was a shoo in for 2nd place in her brilliant Oopma Loompa costume!

Here are some pics of them getting ready and some from the party.

Maraschino Photography was at the NCT party and they are the ones who chose Noah as the best costume winner. Here are some professional shots they took of the kids at the party...

A few first for Noah...

On October 26, Noah started clapping! This is a very exciting development and mommy and daddy were very proud! Noah loves to flex his wrists and loves his hands so clapping was a definite hit with him!

On October 30, Noah got his first tooth! He wasn't even 8 months by the time the first three arrived! This is a full three months earlier than his sister got teeth and was a big surprise to mommy and daddy. His first tooth was is lower right central incisor. His second tooth arrived on November 2 and was his upper left central incisor. Tooth three arrived on November 5 and was his lower left central incisor. Finally on November 15 he got his fourth tooth and it was his upper right central incisor. Here is a good close up of his new chompers!

Ok, back to the Halloween festivities! The weekend before Halloween (which fell on a Monday), the Banks family (Adam, Nat, Jack and Issy) came to stay with us. We thought it would be fun to celebrate Halloween together and for them to stay and go trick or treating with us on Monday. Over the weekend we enjoyed some nice walks through Greenwich park and spent time at the house catching up and watching the children play together.

Here are a few of my favorite shots from the walks...

There is always a massive queue for the swings so mommy squeezed them into one!

Issy on the slide

Jack had this big sword with a skull on it. As most of you know, Stephen has a fear of skeletons so Nat had to tape over it!

The real fun came on Monday when we got to dress the kids up for Halloween and trick or treating. It was so cute hearing Esme say "krick or treat." She really enjoyed herself and was happy to have her friends along for the fun. Noah fell asleep halfway through but was a very well behaved boy!

The front of our house, ready for Halloween!