Halloween 2017

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2016

 Halloween 2017

Halloween was fantastic this year. When I was workingup in Idaho, I asked Kevin what he wanted to be for Halloween. He thought for a moment, and said, “Hmmm...I know! I want to be a ball!”

Trying to be supportive, while thinking of how difficult a ball costume would be, I said, “That’s a great idea, Kevin, but let me give you some more options so you know what’s available. You could be a monster, a dinosaur, a pirate, a tiger...”

Interrupting my list, he exclaimed, “I know what I want to be!”

“What?” I asked, not sure what to expect.

“A rocket ship,” he pronounced proudly.

Whatever I had been expecting, that was not it. However, he had made up his mind, so I began to look at costume designs. Before I could really invest a lot of time and effort, I decided to see if anyone sold rocket ship costumes. It turned out that there was one available for a good price. Pleased, Grig and I decided to buy Kevin’s costume this year.

2017

So, for Halloween 2017, Kevin became a rocket ship. I have no idea where he got the idea, but it was a fun and unique costume.

Meanwhile, Grig worked on his Bruce Willis from Unbreakable costume. He had to paint the right words on the back of a rain poncho, and that ended up taking a while, but we managed to complete it in time.

I bought a pair of pointy ears and wore my black cloak. I decided I was an elf. The dogs didn’t dress up this year. I just didn’t have the motivation for a lot of things. We didn’t do a Halloween party this year either, we went up to Idaho to attend my brother’s instead.

That was a lot of fun, and I was able to help my dad go through some of his Halloween stuff. He was kind enough to give me some that he didn’t want anymore.

On the way back, we stopped by my grandma's house and my cousins helped Kevin carve a pumpkin. He said that was one of his favorite parts of Halloween.

We also went through the Pumpkin Walk, and Kevin was one of the few kids dressed up, so he created a bit of a stir. It was really fun though, even though it was pretty cold. We didn’t go to the Fall Festival this year, which was too bad, but we were pretty busy anyway.

Kevin seemed to really enjoy trick-or-treating. Our ward didn’t have a trunk-or-treat, but my walking friend invited us to go to hers with her family. It was good to see them. They moved a couple of months ago, so we haven’t been walking with her lately. That’s made it more difficult for me to get out and walking.

After the trunk-or-treat, we stopped by the young single adult ward for a Halloween party. It was fun, but I was a little disappointed that they didn't have a haunted house in the basement this time. Kevin really enjoyed that last year...after he got over his initial fright.

Before we went trick-or-treating, we went to my grandparent's house and had a little Halloween party with my cousins. They fed us some healthy food, and then we drove home quickly so we could get Kevin out before it was too late.

He came back with quite a bit of candy, and we had a few trick-or-treaters drop by our door, though not as many as I would have liked. I think we would have had more, but it was a school night.

All in all, I think it was a successful Halloween. Kevin enjoyed himself, and it is really fun to have a kid old enough to pick his own costumes.

In case you can't tell, we also spent some time messing with the facebook messenger filters. 

Halloween 2016

We had a most excellent Halloween.We started the day off with preschool, and Kevin and the dogs dressed up for that. Arkhon didn't really like his costume, but Siff seemed to enjoy it. 

We had a fun Halloween preschool. We made masks, drew the letter H on balloons, and learned about our primary colors. After Kevin's classmate went home, we worked on getting ready to go trick-or-treating. Kevin tried on a couple other costumes too!

Once Grig came home, we carved our pumpkin. We had taken Kevin to the store the week before and told him to pick out a pumpkin. We were going to buy three, but when he picked this monster, we decided one was enough. Next year we may have to implement a rule one of my walking friends just told me about. In her family. They had to be able to carry their pumpkin to the car. That is such a good idea!

We each took a side of the pumpkin, since it was so big.

 Grig cut off the top, Kevin and I gutted it, and then we each drew on our creation. Kevin's was tricky because it wasn't really easy to cut out, but after he directed us, we managed to cut out what he wanted.

I also made dinner so we could eat before we went Trick-or-treating.

 Meanwhile, Siff tried on goggles. She was pretty cute.

We finally finished. Kevin loved carving pumpkins! He enjoyed every second of it.

 Here are the final works of art!

 After we finished eating, we went out with some friends and Trick-or-treated for a while. We brought Siff along with us, and she had a great time. Kevin was a hit, and he loved saying, "Trick-of-Treat" and "Happy Halloween." He and his friends took turns ringing and knocking on the doors.

Here's Siff in her costume. Arkhon was not happy about being left home. 

We were supposed to be over at my Great Aunt's apartment complex by 7:30 pm. I looked at my watch and realized half-way around our block that it was 7:26. We quickly realized we weren't going to make it in time and called to tell her that we wouldn't be arriving until a little later.

We finished knocking around our block and headed off; only to find that in our hurry, we had forgotten one of Kevin's shoes.So, barefoot, we entered my great aunt's complex.

Kevin made off like a bandit. My aunt and a friend stuffed Kevin's little bucket full, since we were nearly the last people to visit. It was pretty adorable. We thanked them, took a few pictures, and then drove to my grandma's house. They took the following picture of us.

 Havelock and Allopex were nice and manned the door. They handed out candy while we went out and knocked for more. Kevin loves his uncles, and they were really nice to help out. It is sometimes really nice to have them living in the basement.

We got home late, but we had a really good time. Kevin loved Halloween! I asked him what he was going to be next year, and he gave me a funny look, as though he couldn't believe I didn't already know, and stated obviously, "A T-rex." We'll see if he still feels the same way next Halloween.

When he said his prayers that night, he thanked Heavenly Father for the pumpkin carving, the trick-or-treating, and the candy. Grig and I really enjoyed ourselves too.

I adore Halloween!

Halloween Traditions

In my family, Halloween is a BIG deal.

On my dad's side, one of my aunts was born on Halloween, and so they always had a big celebration for it. Ghost stories and scary movies became favorite pastimes. My dad always had a lot of decorations, and many of them moved, roared, or danced. He also had a lot of bobble headed monsters from old monster movies.

So, it's safe to say that we grew up loving Halloween.

We lived in a pretty small town. Trick-or-treating was safe. We knew all of our neighbors, and they knew us. They didn't have trunk-or-treats until I was out of high school.

Grig, on the other hand, only went trick-or-treating when he was very young. His younger siblings have never gone, and his mom was telling Kevin to always let his parents check his candy before he eats it.

We never did that. We knew everyone we trick-or-treated too, so there was no need to worry about it. Our parents only told us not to eat too much at one time.

It is interesting how different family traditions and circumstances can affect our perception of holidays.

We bought a house in a small town, and once again, I know most of our neighbors. I'm so excited to take Kevin trick-or-treating! I love Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas and I'm really stoked that he's old enough to really understand what's going on this year. We've been watching all sorts of Halloween cartoons in preparation for Saturday.

People have been asking what Kevin is going to be for Halloween. A lot of them have assumed that Kevin is going to be Superman, but I told them that there was no way. Kevin is Superman every day. So, he has to be something different for Halloween. Next year, he'll pick his own costume, but this year, we helped him pick it.

Here it is:

He dressed up tonight to go to a Halloween party. He had a great time with his cousins.

This will be his third Halloween. Here are the previous years' costumes:

It's hard to believe how much he's grown!

As Grig and I learn from each other, we have to decide which traditions we want to keep from our parents, and which ones we want to form. It's a fun journey, and we're so grateful to be making it together!

Halloween 2014

This year, for Halloween, Grig's parents sent us a package containing a some costumes.

Arkhon's first Halloween. He tried on Kevin's onesie.

Grig, Kevin, and I all received a superman shirt, which was perfect since the theme of our ward party was superheroes.

We kept the costumes hidden until Halloween night, and then we pulled them out. The first first I put on fit me okay, but the shirt Grig tried on just didn't seem right. The neck was too wide and it fit him weird. We decided maybe it was a girl shirt, and we switched.

Hooray for that! The shirt fit me much better, and the one I had been wearing looked much better on him. I'm glad we noticed that before we tried to leave the house. Kevin's costume was a little big, but he loved it.

I have a really old book in the house called Batman: A Purrfect Crime. I can't find the version I have anywhere, so it's probably not made anymore. It's cover fell off long ago, and it's copyrighted from 1992. It's getting pretty old.

However, it is absolutely Kevin's favorite book. However, I am more of a Superman fan myself. I like Batman quite a bit, but I prefer Superman.

Unfortunately, Kevin, at this point anyway, seems geared toward Batman because of that book. He'll run into his room and say, "Batman, batman." He knows what he wants.

So, when we put the Superman costume on him, he became very excited and pointing to the emblem said, "Batman, batman."

"No," we told him, "it's Superman."

"Batman," he repeated.

He did that to us all night long. I'm pretty sure that by the end of it, he was just teasing us because he liked our reactions. We wanted to get it on film, but we can't find Grig's old camera that we've been using to record videos. That's pretty sad.

We went trunk-or-treating first and wandered around to all the parked cars in the church parking lot. Some people had delicious home-made cookies and doughnuts. They were delicious. Kevin got a lot of candy.

Then, we went inside and played games and activities for a while. Kevin really had a good time, especially in the Hulk room where you were supposed to build buildings and then rip them down like the Hulk.

This was supposed to be Wonder Woman's lasso.

After 7:15 or so, we left the party and went to my grandparent's home to go trick-or-treating. We visited with them for a few minutes and then went around the block to their neighbors for trick-or-treating. Kevin caught on pretty fast. By the end of our short run, he was trying to say, "Trick or treat?' and he was definitely saying, "Thank you." He enjoyed ringing the doorbells and getting candy from everyone.

We had a great time.

At about 8:00 we had to go home because Grig's coworker and family were supposed to come over and Grig had work the next morning. Kevin and I watched It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown while we waited for them to show up, but they never came. So, after the movie finished, we went to bed.

It was a wonderful Halloween.

Chasing balls.

Halloween Highlights

Okay, so I said I wasn't going to reveal Kevin's costume yet, and that I was going to wait for the vlog tomorrow.  So, be very excited!  It's very cute. 

I will give you some hints though. 

We had an exciting evening last night.  First, at 5:30 p.m. we went to a Trunk or Treat.  Kevin had a great time.  He walked around in his nice warm costume and followed other kids all around the parking lot.  He was so confused.  People would hold out their bowls of candy for him to take something, and he would stare blankly at the bowl and then look at the people as though to say, "What do you want from me?"

At first, we would grab the candy for him and put it in his small Easter bucket that we converted into a Halloween bucket.  Then, we went inside the church for an Alic in Wonderland Halloween party.  The people in charge did a great job!  There was all sorts of fun games for the children.  Lots and lots of sugar was handed out.  We ate some great cupcakes after Kevin won a cupcake walk.  Basically, there were paper plates taped to the floor, and Kevin would walk from one to the next while the music played.  When the music stopped, the children stopped.  Then, if they called the number of the paper plate he was standing on, he got to go get a cupcake.  We helped him eat it. 

He's only eleven months old, after all.  He only has one tooth!

Then, we got some apple juice.  Kevin loves apple juice. 

We only stayed at the party until 6:30 p.m.  Then, we went Trick-or-Treating at my Grandparent's home.  As we approached the door, I came up with a fantastic idea.  We put Kevin on the ground in front of the door, put his Halloween bucket next to him, rang the doorbell, and ran.  We hid in the bushes just off the front porch.  Kevin was busy pulling his candy out of his bucket when my Grandma opened the door.  She looked really confused when she found a baby on her porch all alone.  It took her a second to recognize Kevin, then she started laughing.  We emerged about then.  She ran and got her camera.

We spent a few minutes there and then we went Trick-or-Treating around her cul-de-sac.  It was here that Kevin started to understand the concept.  He started taking a piece of candy from their bowl and putting it in his own.  Sometimes he didn't want to let it go when he'd grabbed it, but he had a great time.  It was kind of cold, but he was bundled up warmly.  I think Grig was the only real cold one.  I had a nice warm cloak on. 

While we were Trick-or-Treating, we passed another child who was also wearing an African animal themed costume.  Kevin was prey while she was a predator.  We joked around with her mom that she was going to eat our baby.  Her mom joked back that she would hold her back.  As she walked away, we heard the girl say, "Mom, I'm not a REAL animal."  Grig and I laughed a lot about that.

Other than Kevin trying to get inside everyone's homes when we knocked on the door, it went really smoothly.  Then, after skyping with my parents at my grandparent's home, we went back to our apartment complex.  Then, Grig and Havelock took Kevin out for a few more houses while I played watchdog to the door. 

Grig got to bed awfully late considering he was supposed to be at work by 4 a.m.  However, it was a fantastic night.  We all had a great time!  I think Kevin really enjoyed his first Halloween.

I sure did.

Yes, Kevin was some kind of African Animal...see if you can guess which!