Halloween

Well, this will be fast, but I want it up. Robby went as a drummer in the Penn State Blue band. I was pleased with how it turned out. We saw the parade at his daycare, trick-or-treated briefly at Chris's admin's house, Robby fell and hurt his hand, and we tried to meet some neighbors and weren't so successful. Happy late Halloween!

 

No guts, no glory

No guts, no glory, eh?  Lies.  The Lion managed to avoid every bit of pumpkin guts, but still ended up with a carved pumpkin.  You just need to have a sucker named Mom on your team. 

He was happy to do some scooping, but there really wasn't a need to take his shirt off.  Guaranteed, though, that if I hadn't, he would have been covered.

This was a good activity, though, on Monday when he was already starting to go a little batty being cooped up inside.  I think the biggest blessing of not getting hit so hard by Sandy is that our imprisonment was brief.  Still, wait for the video I post tomorrow.

As I said, he was intrigued, but like at the petting zoo, did not want to get his hands dirty.  He did not so much as touch one little orange strand.  He did try and eat a raw seed, but that's because he's familiar with the cooked variety.  (Loves them, and does a good job chewing, don't worry.)

He got very excited when I showed him the lid and spent quite a bit of time taking it on and off.  My notch that makes it easier for us to put on was helpful, too.

In the end, I'm fairly please with myself and thought it was cute.  Not my crazy carvings of the past, but cute. 

Thankful Day #1: Today I'm thankful for the harvest that pumpkins represent.  I'm thankful we have plenty of food on our table.

The First "Real" Halloween

Well, yes, Robby dressed up last year.  And, he even received a couple pieces of candy.  But he got carried everywhere.  And there was NO chance that he'd get to eat the candy.  This year?  Whole new ball of wax.  I made the costume, he went door-to-door, and he "got it". 

 

Please note the bandana.  This is about as long as it was on his head.  It made it across the street to our neighbor's where he pulled it off.

 

While Sandy had finally left the area, it was still pretty chilly.  For the first round of trick-or-treating, we wrapped him in a blanket, and unveiled him at each house.  For the second round (because a neighbor texted us that we needed to come over), Robby just wore a coat.  And then someone accused him of being Uncle Sam.  REALLY?

 

It was great, though, when he started to pick up on what it was all about.  The first house we had to spend a long time convincing him that he wanted to pick up the FULL SIZE candy bar and put it in his basket.  As soon as he figured it out, though, he tried to grab a couple more.  Mmm...nice try, but no.

 

So, obviously, once we returned to our house, he had to raid our candy.  Repeatedly.  For once, I didn't over-buy, so I started to get worried that we wouldn't have enough for the trick-or-treaters.  Not because he was getting to eat the candy, but because he was smushing it all.

 

Yes, I did let him have one Milky Way, and WHO boy did he enjoy that.  It kind of opened up an obsession that perhaps I didn't care to encourage.  Whoops.  AND he got chocolate all over his shirt.  I guess I expected it, but still.  Boo!

 

And here is where my son looks like a giant.  This is our neighbor who is only 2 weeks younger than him.  And yet, Robby looks like he could crush him.  I swear our neighbor is of completely normal size.  See the pictures where he towers over his swim buddy, too.  Where did Chris and I get such a bruiser?

 

While he may have started out the evening very fussy, chocolate can bring out the best in anyone.  He thoroughly enjoyed it until around 7:30 when it got to be too much, and he just lost it.  I had taken him up for his bath, and the fact that he wasn't able to answer the door for the kids?  Meltdown worthy.  Amazingly, he went down, and stayed down, even though the doorbell continued to ring. 

 

While I spent a lot of time making his costume, even sewing on the buttons during lunch today, mine was a last-minute closet scavenge.  And yet, a neighbor still gave me credit for "dressing up"!  Yay!  Honestly...not sure if anyone would be able to tell if I wasn't in matching stripes, but I'll take it.  But, I'm mostly proud of at least sewing this costume.   So now, even if I never pull it off again, I can take pride in this year.  Though, I know I'll attempt it again, since it wasn't painful, and my fabulous mother always made mine.  (Including the Queen of Hearts when I was 8!  That took serious talent.)

 

How was your Halloween?  Any good costumes?

The Real Halloween Costume

The Lion actually DID come home in the skeleton outfit.  Who knew?  Still, we had something else planned for that night.  Not surprisingly, the Lion was....the Nittany Lion.  Although most people thought he was a bear, which was just fine by me.

These are less than great pictures of me, but I know I'm not who matters here.  That is one cute little bear/lion.  It's a 12-month-sized outfit, so there was some cuffing going on, but he still was very snuggly.  That might have been something to do with trick-or-treating running from 6 to 8 pm.  He was a sleepy man!

We had no intention of actually going trick-or-treating, but we did stop by across the street and next door to show off the cuteness.  We also ran into another neighbor who has a little boy, Kaden, who is a couple weeks younger than Robby.  He was dressed as a pea pod, which the Lion found utterly fascinating.  He insisted on grabbing at the fuzzy green outfit the entire time Kaden's mom was trying to take pictures.

I also harassed my elderly neighbor, Ann.  She's in her 80's, and I don't think she intended to hand out candy.  She was sitting in her living room watching tv in her nightgown, but I kept ringing the doorbell until she gave up and opened the door.  (Understand, this is usually how it goes, and she's always thrilled that it's us.)  I knew she'd want to see lil man in his costume, and I was right.  Though she immediately started bustling around trying to find stuff for trick-or-treaters, since she had forgotten what day it was.  And tried to give me candy, which I refused.  1)  Robby isn't eating it yet (though is thoroughly entertained by the crinkly wrappers) and 2) We have TONS left over.

Another neighbor gave me props for getting face-paint on him, but honestly?  That was really easy.  He laughed the whole time.  Apparently it tickled.  There you have it.  Lion's first Halloween.  Maybe next year he can get a sugar high.  (Doubtful, but he can dream.)