Since Halloween was on a Saturday this year, we made the whole day a festive occasion. We started it out carving pumpkins, or I should say, with Jeff carving the pumpkins. He designed them to resemble the ones in
Nightmare Before Christmas and I think he did an excellent job. Norah and Justin were very confused as to why Daddy was the only one allowed to draw on the pumpkins and cut them up! Although Norah did sneak in a couple marks with the pencil she found on the counter.
For the last 3 years we have gone to our friends' house for Halloween and Trick or Treating. They live in a wonderful neighborhood that is very family oriented (and actually has street lights) for this type of thing. After nap time we loaded up and headed on over. It was great to get to see all the costumed kids so excited about the evening. Norah and Justin love being around older kids, and Jeff and I love being able to talk to adults, so we all enjoyed the evening.
Now that both kids are walking and talking, Halloween was a lot of fun. Norah loved her Snow White dress despite its bulkiness preventing her from effectively playing tag with all the other kids. She stepped on her dress repeatedly while trying to run, and occasionally tripped, but she improvised by slightly lifting the bottom of her skirt like some Victorian lady. It was hilarious to watch such proper behavior, but we never got a picture of it. She loved swinging around her magic wand, and instinctively raised it in front of her face a split second before most photographs were taken.
Justin didn't really mind his monkey costume, but the head of the costume made him crazy. He doesn't really like things on his head no matter how cute they are, however he loved Trick or Treating. Despite his hatred of head wear he was distracted enough to leave it on for the majority of the evening. Justin didn't want to put the candy in his jack-o-lantern, so he carried it in his hands to each house. Each time he was offered candy he considered how he could accept new candy without dropping the old and just decided to trade up. He continually put his old candy in the candy bowl and chose a more interesting treat. This elicited laughter from the homeowners who usually tried to give him more because of it.
Both kids were surprisingly good about saying "Thank You", "Please", and Norah even tried "Trick or Treat", though she usually just went with "Happy Halloween". They were great about only taking one piece of candy (as opposed to diving into the offered candy bowl), even when encouraged to take more. This isn't something we taught them, but more likely a reaction to being overwhelmed by all the activity going on around them.
Justin became tired pretty early on. It's sometimes easy to forget that he's only 16 months, and can only keep up with the older kids for so long. He ended up riding on Daddy's shoulders until Jeff could run back to the car to retrieve the stroller. At that point he rode for the remainder of the evening. We knew he was done when we took him up to the front door of a house, and he was too tired to even lean forward to pick out candy anymore.
Norah started the evening running from house to house, which was quite a feat since she was wearing her Snow White light up heels. As the evening progressed she started asking to be held as we went from one house to the next, her head resting on my shoulder. By 8pm we knew that they were just too tired to keep going, and by the time we got them in the car, there was very little protesting as we buckled them in.
Happy Halloween Everyone!
Since Halloween was on a Saturday this year, we made the whole day a festive occasion. We started it out carving pumpkins, or I should say, with Jeff carving the pumpkins. He designed them to resemble the ones in Nightmare Before Christmas and I think he did an excellent job. Norah and Justin were very confused as to why Daddy was the only one allowed to draw on the pumpkins and cut them up! Although Norah did sneak in a couple marks with the pencil she found on the counter.
For the last 3 years we have gone to our friends' house for Halloween and Trick or Treating. They live in a wonderful neighborhood that is very family oriented (and actually has street lights) for this type of thing. After nap time we loaded up and headed on over. It was great to get to see all the costumed kids so excited about the evening. Norah and Justin love being around older kids, and Jeff and I love being able to talk to adults, so we all enjoyed the evening.
Now that both kids are walking and talking, Halloween was a lot of fun. Norah loved her Snow White dress despite its bulkiness preventing her from effectively playing tag with all the other kids. She stepped on her dress repeatedly while trying to run, and occasionally tripped, but she improvised by slightly lifting the bottom of her skirt like some Victorian lady. It was hilarious to watch such proper behavior, but we never got a picture of it. She loved swinging around her magic wand, and instinctively raised it in front of her face a split second before most photographs were taken.
Justin didn't really mind his monkey costume, but the head of the costume made him crazy. He doesn't really like things on his head no matter how cute they are, however he loved Trick or Treating. Despite his hatred of head wear he was distracted enough to leave it on for the majority of the evening. Justin didn't want to put the candy in his jack-o-lantern, so he carried it in his hands to each house. Each time he was offered candy he considered how he could accept new candy without dropping the old and just decided to trade up. He continually put his old candy in the candy bowl and chose a more interesting treat. This elicited laughter from the homeowners who usually tried to give him more because of it.
Both kids were surprisingly good about saying "Thank You", "Please", and Norah even tried "Trick or Treat", though she usually just went with "Happy Halloween". They were great about only taking one piece of candy (as opposed to diving into the offered candy bowl), even when encouraged to take more. This isn't something we taught them, but more likely a reaction to being overwhelmed by all the activity going on around them.
Justin became tired pretty early on. It's sometimes easy to forget that he's only 16 months, and can only keep up with the older kids for so long. He ended up riding on Daddy's shoulders until Jeff could run back to the car to retrieve the stroller. At that point he rode for the remainder of the evening. We knew he was done when we took him up to the front door of a house, and he was too tired to even lean forward to pick out candy anymore.
Norah started the evening running from house to house, which was quite a feat since she was wearing her Snow White light up heels. As the evening progressed she started asking to be held as we went from one house to the next, her head resting on my shoulder. By 8pm we knew that they were just too tired to keep going, and by the time we got them in the car, there was very little protesting as we buckled them in.
Happy Halloween Everyone!
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