Our Halloween Hullaballoo

We had a fun, jam-packed week leading up to Halloween this year! (And this is also a long, jam-packed entry!)

On Tuesday night we headed over to the Halloween "Trunk-or-Treat" at our church to collect some candy! It was the first time I suited Tommy up completely in his Peter Pan costume and he looked positively adorable! (Funny side note: When I told my 12-year-old brother Jared that Thomas was going to be Peter Pan for Halloween, he didn't seem to think that was a good idea. He said in protest, "You're going to dress him up as a girl?!" We then argued about how Peter Pan, the character, is very much a boy, who used to be and sometimes still is played by women onstage. Jared finally conceded, but then said, "But are you making him wear tights?" I totally laughed when I realized his true concern. So please note: There were no tights involved!) When Thomas woke up from his nap before the trunk-or-treat, he was actually quite grumpy and threw a little tantrum, refusing to let me put on his costume at first. I didn't want to drag him there if he was screaming and unhappy about it, so I was afraid we were just going to have to nix it. But, after I bribed him with a mini chocolate bar from our Halloween stash and promised him we would be getting more candy and there would be lots of kids there, I managed to get him into his costume and into the car. Once we got there he was totally over the grumpiness...he was so intrigued by all these crazy characters walking around he just stared around in curiosity and amazement! As we went from car to car and each person offered him candy, he was very shy and hesitant about it, almost like he was thinking "Really? You're all really just going to give me candy? Mom hardly ever gives me candy!" It was very cute. A lot of people there thought he was Robin Hood, and it didn't even occur to me that he looked very much like Robin Hood as well as Peter Pan. Either way, he looked so cute! One sad thing was that Ryan had to work late that night and wasn't able to come with us. We missed having you there Daddy!

After we got home, Thomas was all about checking out his loot. I felt so bad when it was time to take his Halloween bucket away and tell him he couldn't have any more candy for now. I'm not a super strict mom when it comes to what Thomas eats, but he has never consumed very much candy at once...I didn't want to wind up with a sick, miserable kid! I also felt guilty because his already-small candy stash was diminished by pretty much half after I went through it and took out all the gumballs, jaw-breakers, and bubblegum that I didn't feel comfortable with him having. Poor guy! He gets all these goodies only to have Mom take 'em away! (Its really okay though...he definitely made up for it in the course of the week. We had TONS of candy at our house! =)

On Wednesday we headed over to a nearby park to play and have an outdoor costume photoshoot that I've made into a little tradition since Thomas was born. I love where we live now, but the one thing I will always miss about where we lived in Provo was the park that was only half a block away. It was right next to the Provo river and was filled with dozens of giant, beautiful old trees that were simply gorgeous in the fall and provided lots of fun leaves for autumn photos. We live close to a park here in Saratoga as well, but our subdivision is much newer and there are only tiny, brand new trees. I wanted to go somewhere with at least some larger trees and leaves to take photos of Thomas and I almost decided to drive into Provo to go to our old park, but Ryan told me about one park in the area that was right next to the lake and had a few enormous old Cottonwood trees. We found it and it was perfect! One of the trees even had a little door leading to Peter Pan's hideout! Some acquaintances from our ward happened to be at the park when we arrived...Fawn and her son Kylin and little girl Darlin. Kylin and Thomas made friends in church one day when they sat behind us...Kylin was so nice and kept offering Thomas his toys! Kylin is 5, three years older than Thomas, but they are so cute together and had a great time running around the playground and in the trees. Thomas kept wanting to climb the trees or have me lift him up to sit in a tree or something...it was so cute, but I kept worrying he would fall! I don't think I could've gotten photos of his tree-climbing without Fawn there! I found out that she used to work as a photographer and she tried to help me with Thomas a bit so I could get some good photos. It was hard chasing him around with the camera, but I managed to get some cute shots of my little Peter Pan. =)

On Thursday night we carved pumpkins! I always get excited about pumpkin carving...it was a big event for me and my brothers growing up. I tried to get Thomas to help scoop out the "pumpkin guts," but when he looked at what I was pulling out of there he thought it was "gwoss!" He had fun playing with the scoops and tools, though...he's all about tools these days. I showed him some pumpkin face designs I found and asked him which one he wanted to do, and he liked a Mickey Mouse design. I thought it looked easy, but boy, was I wrong! I ended up staying up late after both the boys went to bed just to finish it, and I didn't even carve my own pumpkin til the next day! Tommy's pumpkin turned out very cute, but I was sad because the very next day, Mickey Mouse's face was already starting to shrivel up a bit and I had to try and secure it with toothpicks. No more difficult designs for me! When I finally got around to my own pumpkin, I carved an uber-easy pattern! Guess which one it is? ;)

Friday, Halloween, was party-day! My sisters-in-law Sara and Hayley and I decided we wanted to have a Halloween party with some of our fam, and we had it at my house. We just thought, adults can't trick-or-treat, and none of us ever did something especially fun or eventful on Halloween. So we decided to change that! The whole week before Halloween I was running around like a crazy woman helping get ready for the par-tay! It turned out awesome. 4 of Ryan's 5 siblings and their spouses came (we missed you, Melissa & Seth & Mom & Dad!) and my mom, dad and brother Jared came too. We had a fun time taking photos of everybody, listening to Halloween-y music, eating, watching Thomas and his cousin Julia run around together, and watching Hocus Pocus (love that movie!). The food was excellent...Sara brought home-made chili (mmmmmm...chili is one of my big things right now) and sugar cookies, Hayley & Eric brought pumpkin bread, and I made apple cider for the first time ever! There was also chips n' salsa, apple slices with caramel and candy galore! (Seriously...I went way overboard on the candy. And we only got, maybe, four sets of trick-or-treaters! I need to get rid of the stuff. Any suggestions other than ingestion? Can you give candy to a food bank? =)

When I was shopping for the party I came across a fun, no mess idea for an activity for Thomas and Julia. I found a set of these cute plastic eyes, ears and noses with pegs that were made to stick into a pumpkin to make animal faces with, kind of like Mr. Potato-head. I got four little pumpkins just for Thomas and Julia to make faces on, and they loved it! They had lots of fun making the dog, cat, bear and pig faces...my brother Jared joined in too (he's great with kids) and came up with a few crazy weird faces! Thomas is still having fun making "pumpkin faces" several days later...its so nice that I can keep them for future Halloweens!

Okay, I have to devote a paragraph to my hubby. Ryan does not like dressing up for Halloween, and I've never been able to get him to do it in any previous year of our marriage. But somehow, miraculously, this year he agreed to wear a costume without much pushing from me. I was amazed! I had a certain costume suggestion for him and he went with it completely. And I mean, COMPLETELY. This is a miracle people...witness for yourselves! Introducing.......

CAPTAIN HOOK!

Does he not look awesome? You can barely recognize him! I can't even tell you gleeful I was when I saw Ryan's finished transformation. I kept having these fits of giggles every time I looked at him! He not only put on the full costume with the hook, but he painted his hair and eyebrows black, wore a long, curly black wig, wore mascara to make his eyelashes black and put on a fake black mustache! And this was all really mostly his idea! When he agreed to the costume I wasn't going to push my luck and ask him to wear a wig too, but a couple days before Halloween he asked, "aren't you going to get me a wig?" I am simply amazed people! Everybody else at the party was stunned that Ryan dressed up so thoroughly, or at all! One of the activities of our party was a costume contest where everybody voted for their favorite costume, and Ryan won by a longshot! The prize was nothing terribly exciting...just a gift card to Walmart. And Ryan, well...he doesn't particularly love Walmart. I probably would have ended up being the one to spend it! So Ryan was nice enough to relinquish his prize to the runner-up, who happened to be Julia, the adorable midnight fairy! Make sure your mom and dad buy you something fun Julia! =)

It was cute when Thomas first saw Ryan. I think he was a little bit worried, even though he knew it was daddy. Ryan said something like "Argh, I've got ye now, Peter Pan!" and even though Ryan was just playing, I think it scared Thomas a tiny bit...Thomas said a little defensively, "No, I'n Peter Pan!" I think Ryan just looked so real as Captain Hook! I was so giddy about Ryan giving in to his childish side for an evening. And I think he really enjoyed dressing up too! He looked so awesome, I have to say I was a little envious! When he got too hot he took off the hat and wig and mustache, but his hair and eyebrows were painted black still, so I got to see a dark-haired version of my hubby a lot of the evening. He looked kinda cute! It was funny, everyone kept saying how weird it was to look at Ryan with dark hair and how they kept thinking he was some stranger! I dressed up too, as Tiger Lily, the indian princess from the Peter Pan story. Kinda funny...Ryan was Cap'n Hook, his wife was Tiger Lily, our son was Peter Pan...now there's an interesting storyline you never heard before! =)

The party was a great success and I was so glad when all the preparations were done and we all just got to enjoy it and par-tay! I'm a total stress case when involved in planning any kind of gathering. Most of Ryan's siblings stayed way past midnight, and Thomas didn't get put to bed until 2 am!!! Ryan and I didn't wake up til 11 (a record for him, he never sleeps in) and Thomas didn't wake up til 11:30! It was nice to relax on Saturday and recover. Halloween week was so much fun but way more busy and crazy than usual! Now I can't believe that its November. I am very much looking forward to the holidays coming our way! =)