I'm Palooza-d out.

On Sunday we went to PumpkinPalooza. (While not nearly as ubiquitous as the variations on "Got Milk?", hasn't the statute of limitations run out on "paloozas"?). This rather unfortunately named festival was at one of our favorite gardens and we were hoping for three good hours of some ol' fashioned Halloween fun: hay rides, costumes, pumpkins galore.

First, we had to dress up Z. Being the slacker parents we are, we borrowed a costume that was offered by a friend. And so a bee was born (Note seeds clutched in hand. We had been there exactly 5 minutes and she was already collecting seeds.):


Actually, I have to say, we aren't super slackers. More like super geeks. It turns out that we were THE ONLY adults dressed up at the whole place (that we saw anyway):



Unfortunately, it was miserably hot that day in Southern California (I know, I know, no one but me was surprised. I'm still getting used to living in one of the outer circles of HELL.) so Z's black tights, black long sleeved onesie and polyester bee suit were a bit much. After taking many pictures, we quickly changed her out of her costume and headed, toddler-meandering-while-collecting-seeds speed, for the hay ride. Where we waited and waited and waited. By the time we finally got off the lame, fume-inhaling ride, we had squandered what was left of Z's decent mood so off we went to the super-long line for the predictably mediocre lunch. After lunch, it seemed the heat had taken it's toll on us all so we quickly shoved her next to a few huge pumpkins, snapped some pics and headed home. This one shows Z signing "hot" because she had just touched the pumpkin.



Why are these things always so much better on paper?