Halloween 2010

We had several Halloween parties this year, although only a couple with costumes and only 1 of those did he actually wear his costume:

#1) Crosspoint Clubhouse Fall Party
The first one was at his school and I was able to be there. I am so glad I went and I can not wait for the next parent participation at school.

I got there a little early and was able to watch the kids on the playground. John listens to his teachers really well and he it is so funny to watch him follow instructions with this friends and be part of a group without me. They had to hold on to this little rope and walk together to the pumpkin patch, sit in a row on the sidewalk and take turns picking out their pumpkins, and then take a group picture. Then we headed inside and decorated his pumpkin, ate lunch and then sang some songs. I did notice that I do a lot more for him that I probably should have. The teachers really make them do things for themselves (where appropriate of course) and I realized John might be a bigger boy than I give him credit for. J No costumes at this party.


#2) Neighborhood Play Group Halloween Party
We were SUPPOSED to wear our costume, but someone was NOT in the mood. I think I got him to put his shark head on once for a picture. Laura, the hostess, did a great job! She rented a bounce house and the weather was awesome for it, she had several games for us including bobbing for apples, a spoon race and crafts. John had a ton of fun and then got to finish it off with a pizza and cookie lunch!


#3) Chili at the neighbors and then trick-or-treating
After noticing the arguments we were getting about the costume, we had been working on John for days about trick-or-treating and informing him that he HAD to wear his costume or no one would give him candy… that is all it took. I have to say that this is the last year we will be doing a big and bulky costume, I think it will be more comfortable for him and he will enjoy it more.

We started out the afternoon carving pumpkins, John was more into this year, but Daddy still did all the work. Although John made the request for the owl. :)

We went over to the Waters house for chili and play before trick-or-treating. It was awesome weather so we all sat outside and ate together and played. Garrett and John play well together especially when they are outside and can be as loud as they want, because they do tend to go up in volume when they get together. J Then came time to get ready for trick-or-treating! He was a little hesitant at the first house, so Dad went with him, but a few houses into it – no problem! I really wanted to come with them for a bit, so I sat half our candy out in a bowl on our front porch. We made it around one block and back to our house and it was already gone. By this time we were well into the 1st inning of the Rangers game, so Carl stayed home and gave out candy while John asked to go to “one more house”. So of course, I took him, but after every house he said “just one more house”. He was so cute, he would RUN (which looked like waddling in his costume) to the door by himself and I could hear him say ‘trick-or-treat’ and then ‘ thank you’ all on his own. I was so proud.

Then out of the blue he looked in his bucket and said “that’s enough, lets go to my house”! Good choice big boy! So then we went home and sat on the front porch giving out all of our candy. He thought that was so much fun. When we were out of candy he told the huge blow up black cat in our neighbors yard “night night” and we went inside. He had a few pieces of candy, but then went to bed without a problem.

Halloween 2009

Inspired by our trip to SeaWorld, John was a penguin this year (“Pete”). I think this is the last year we will get to choose his costume; I suppose next year he will have an opinion. :) Which also probably means the end of the big, bulky, full body suit costumes. :(

We started the festivities on Friday, the Waters had a neighborhood Halloween play-date at their house. The kids went trick-or-treating by using a map of fun characters that they had to find in the house. Once they found the character they could get candy out of its bowl. It was a really cute idea and John caught on to putting the candy into his pumpkin pretty quick! We attempted to get a group picture, but as you can imagine, it was nearly impossible (see pictures below).

Saturday morning Daddy carved a pumpkin while John watched with interest for all of 2 minutes, but then loved the finished product. Then we went to the HOA’s Halloween Party at the park. It was extremely successful party, but John was not a fan. There were a TON of people and kids in scary costumes, loud music and a lot of chaos. I think it was overwhelming for him. We tried to hang out for a bit, but we vacated early.

Shortly before dark we got our first trick-or-treater. We stayed home and half way watched the OU game and kept John in his costume to hand out candy. Once the first big group of kids came and went John proceeded to take the candy out of the bowl and put it back inside the house and said “all gone”. He CLEARLY did not like me giving away his candy. But by the end of the night, he was putting the candy in the kids bags – one….at….a….time. I didn’t care it was taking so long, but I am sure the kids did. We had to turn out the light; we ran out of candy….and I bought A LOT of candy.

Overall a very successful Halloween and probably our last with no actual trick-or-treating.

My First Halloween

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