Trick or Treat - 2009

Wow, I'm really surprised how much fun today was and how much our children both enjoyed it.

Earlier this week, I was feeling bad about not having anything at all planned for the children for Halloween. I had no costumes purchased. No events planned. Nothing.
I can sort of reason this the same as I reasoned doing nothing for Easter - they are too little to really do much.

But, oh, I was wrong.

And thankfully, Grandma and Papa G sent some cash earlier this week. So the children had costumes after all. And also new, reusable, adorable, fabric monster pumpkin baskets. We went out and bought Jasper a duck costume. It works perfectly because he loves to "quack." (he can actually do three animal sounds now - a duck was the first, but he also knows monkey and elephant)

And I also picked up the supplies to make Petra's bluebird mask - which by the way was super easy. So easy that Petra actually helped make a large part of it. And I added the mask to her costume from last year - it has a whole new look to it.


We tried Jasper's costume on him yesterday and he strutted around like hot stuff. He was quite pleased with his new look. And I was surprised he liked it so much.


Petra absolutely refused to wear her new mask. So I thought, maybe she would wear it on her head more like a hat. She broke down crying every time I tried to put it on her. And I kept trying to make it seem cool. Surprisingly (yes, I was surprised once again) Jasper really liked it and wore it around for about 15 minutes this afternoon, and that was all it took. Petra was more than willing to wear it the rest of the evening! yeah.



Then, while it was still daylight we carved up the pumpkin. Thomas did his best on it while the two children kept climbing on his back and making a mess of it. But they helped as well. Thomas had them pulling the seeds out and dumping them in a bowl.


I love the tail on this duck costume.

Time just flew. The next thing I knew it was dark and time to trick or treat. So I headed out with the children while Thomas stood guard at the house to pass out candy.


Not at all sure about what we were about to do, Petra was still eager and ran to the first house in a gallop. She happily said "trick or treat," please and thank you at each house. And by the time we got to our 5th house (and last) she said everything on her own without my prodding and was not ready to quit. Jasper was not so sure about all of it and really just wanted to be carried around.

The night was fun, and Petra loved her candy...a little too much. She kept digging more out to eat, and I kept having to tell her no more. And she didn't want to stop long enough to go potty, so I had to make her when I saw her "dancing" in the driveway.



You can tell she got a little disappointed when I told her she couldn't have any more candy tonight. how sad.




And I felt like I would be amiss if I didn't mention how absolutely wonderful the children have been this week. With the exception of a 2 hour meltdown on Petra's part one night (which is mostly my fault for being away all day) the children were very obedient, and loving this week. Jasper is beginning to follow basic instructions. And every day I am just amazed at how much Petra knows and can do. She's learning to put the silverware at each place at the table, she can pick up more and knows where many things belong, she can feed the dogs, and she can follow some pretty detailed instructions.