Beginning to Look Halloweenish

Packages arrive, but they're rarely for me. 

So I don't open them and sometimes get surprised.

Carrie showed a sense of humor by throwing a 'bat-cat' into the bedroom while I was teaching.

Followed by a dog robin!

Loki acted traumatized and wanted to lay down next to me until he disrobed.

I was in the middle of class, so I didn't have time to take pictures, but Carrie had some 'in progress.' The kittens were harder to convince to suit up than Max!

Tsuki was the first one caught.

Boy those kittens can 'fly' when they want!

Halloween is in the air! Carrie tricked the pets instead of giving them a treat. 

Halloween 2018

Shane was sad when his Wild Kratts costume didn't get any applause at the costume parade. He didn't know that we had something else in the works. I asked Shane earlier on if he wanted to be anything for Halloween. His first request had been "Zombie Pikachu," but Harry Potter was a close (and more feasible) second.

Mom made it happen!

Carrie had the reveal and dress up on Tuesday. Wednesday morning, Shane wanted to wear it to school.

"Are you sure?" I asked. "Are other kids going to wear costumes?"

Shane insisted. He wanted to go out in full gear! The thing was, he had second thoughts when we pulled up to school and he didn't see any other costumes. I heard him say that he didn't know why, but his mommy had dressed him up!

You threw Mom right under the bus, kid. It was your idea from the get-go! I heard Shane draw some compliments on the way in from the teachers.

He was ecstatic when I picked him up. Two other kids in his class had dressed up and he'd had a ball. Mom wasn't happy about Shane's initial reaction, but was glad to hear he loved the costume.

I took Shane to UVA to trick or treat on the lawn. I made the mistake of looking for closer parking. We killed twenty minutes stuck in traffic to loop back to my initial plan. The lawn's a popular spot!

It was a challenge to find a spot to join the line!

It annoyed me that other kids would totally bypass the line while others waited,

We tried to make friends, but mainly played "I spy" and people-watched.

Shane was a big hit reciting Harry Potter spells. He knows a few like "Alohomora!"

He LOVED the wand. I kept stopping him from shining it in people's eyes.

He tried to get the attention of anyone and everyone!

Which is in the spirit of Halloween. We got a grocery bag full of candy.

There weren't many trick or treaters this year. We only did the circle ourselves. It felt like everyone was at UVA and not out in the neighborhoods.

Shane and I spent nearly three hours out in costume with driving and walking, so he was fine with staying in after a short stint in the neighborhood. If there were other kids out, I would have been out for another couple of hours. Maybe I'll try driving him to a larger neighborhood or somewhere out of Charlottesville next year.

Bonus Story: The Jack-O'-Lantern

Some sort of critter attacked our jack. It actually enhanced it.

The critter came back a later night and Carrie used ketchup to make it look more intentional.

Bonus Story: The Haunted Library

There was a haunted house at the library the Saturday before Halloween.

Free activity? Library? You know Shane and I went there!

There were a lot of people, too! We were in group 16. There were about 10 people in our group, so imagine the others were similar.

Which led to a wait.

A fairly long one where Shane started to run and play hide and go seek squeezing between the stacks.

Shane saw a kid with a Harry Potter costume and walked up to say how cool it was. He didn't know that Carrie was working on a HP costume for him!

Shane switched to reading graphic novels and I switched to a card game while we waited.

It took an hour or so, but we were finally on standby.

The kids were excited!

We waited a chunk more. Shane was using his brain, but his mouth wouldn't stop either. He was talking over and to everyone about everything and about what would happen we went in.

Shane didn't pick up on my covert hints or my overt ones. I actually put my hand over his mouth as he tried to explain and yell how the volunteers were crawling behind sheets before they could spook people!

Honestly, it would have been a better experience if Shane was younger. I appreciated what the volunteers were trying to do, but he was out of the age range it would have been a home run for.

At least there were some free comics at the end! Shane was disappointed it wasn't candy, but he's spent longer looking at the comics than he would have spent chewing.

Bonus-Bonus-Bonus Story: Nightmare Before Christmas.

Since we don't watch broadcast TV, there's not really any sort of holiday spirit anywhere unless we seek it out. It can get lost in the routine and it can be fun. We decided to watch a Halloween movie as a family one night. The Nightmare Before Christmas was the winner. I'm not a huge fan, but it had singing and Carrie likes singing. 

Festival Filled Weekend

Happy TRUNK OR TREAT!!

Shane's daycare threw a fall festival. Admittance was free and Carrie loves an opportunity she can get to flex her creative muscle.  She volunteered our car and dressed it up real nice. 

Shane loves any excuse to dress up. He suited up as a fireman while Carrie put the finishing touches on the Volvo.

And then Shane immediately dressed down to test out the moon bounce.

Maybe I should get Shane an astronaut costume for next year. He could bounce in character!

The coat, ax, and helmet went back on after a bit. Dressing up can be fun! Plenty of kids came in costume, but we were the only family to all dress up!

Shane channeled his fire-fighter spirit and asked for a dalmatian paint job at the face painting station.

He was nervous when he saw his teacher, at first. I think he was afraid we'd leave him or make him do work, but he got over it very quickly.

In the next room, we found a friend, Ganeet! Ganeet and her mom were decorating pumpkins. Shane gushed. He cheered and ran over to her. Toys flew off shelves and the kids had a blast.

Carrie and I introduced ourselves to Ganeet's mom. She grinned ear to ear as Shane called "Ganeet! Ganeet!" and led her around to toy after toy. Ganeet happily chased after. I love that they are friends! I tell Shane that it's our job from God to be kind and friendly to everyone and I think it's wonderful he and Ganeet are friends.

Eventually, Ganeet and her mom moved on to the next activity. Shane and I stayed so that he could decorate a pumpkin with one of his teachers.

At 12:30, Trunk or Treat season began.

I'm not convinced teaching little kids to go up to strangers' cars for candy is the best life lesson, but we had a lot of fun trunk or treating. I manned the car until it became apparent that no one else was.

Then we ate hot dogs.

Then we watched Shane run up a flight of stairs and go down a slide 1,000,000,000 times with Ganeet.

There was a cake walk, too. A chocolate cake was added to our booty, yarrrrr. I'm not worried about the calories for Shane. He ran so much he sweat off his face paint.

He napped well. When he woke, Shane and I went out for Round 2: The community fall festival!

We went fishing for ducks (you were only supposed to catch one)...

again...

and again!

There was ANOTHER moon bounce,

...and the firefighters unofficially voted Shane winner for "Best Costume." I had no idea real firemen and EMTs would be at the festival!

Shane wanted to look at the real version of his plastic axe. Daddy nixed it.

I distracted him by letting him hop into the ambulance. He's really enjoyed those.

After a full day, we still weren't done. Aunt Kim came over for a visit! Shane loved seeing her. He woke up the next morning calling for "Auntie Kim" over the intercom.

It was a very busy night! There's a lot going on this week, as well. It may get too busy to post, so I HAD to get this up tonight! We had a great Fall weekend. This is a fun time of year!

Fire-fighter Shane

We spotted a Halloween costume for Shane on Sunday. I think he's going to wear it every day until Halloween and probably a day or two after.

Shane woke up from his nap and asked "Can I wear my costume?"

He wore it all day!

Shane could not walk past a mirror without looking at himself, either.

It was really cute. I loved how into it Shane got!

Monday morning, Shane asked to wear his costume before school. He talked about it when I picked him up from school. Then he put it on again when we got home from school!

Maybe Shane will start saying he wants to be a fireman now. It doesn't hurt that a firetruck visited Shane's school last week. They let the kids climb around play with their equipment and then drove off sirens blaring, lights flashing!