Halloween 2014

Halloween this year was so much fun! Henry was totally into it, and I was determined to squeeze in lots of fall fun, especially outside while we could. (Let’s just pause for a sec and recognize that the weather this fall was amazing…ahhh). We hit up various pumpkin patches/place areas – three to be exact, one of them twice, painted pumpkins for the mantel, went to the park district’s Halloween party, carved pumpkins and trick or treated twice (once at downtown businesses the day before Halloween).

Painting pumpkins happened twice, as I had five and I thought I’d split up the “time wasting” activity (more like 10 minutes) – yet I think the clean up took as long as the painting process. At least my little artist loved it, and still points up at the pumpkins he painted proudly.  Henry was able to wear his costume three times this year, which is always nice since a. time/money/thought that went into it b. he looked so darn cute. I decided he was going to be Mickey Mouse, since he’s obsessed with the show at the moment and I could pull it off pretty easily, and he was the cutest Mickey Mouse I ever did see. I think he loved it too.

A couple nights before Halloween we carved pumpkins and Henry couldn’t have been more excited or involved. I was a little surprised how much he helped (albeit slooooow help) scoop the pumpkins out and put the seeds in the bowl. He even wanted to help carve, which was interesting carving with a knife while he held onto my hand. He was so excited to carve Mickey into his pumpkin (he has the best excited face with his mouth open, that he’s been doing for several things lately and I love it, see pic below) and was genuinely scared of Ryan’s “scary face” pumpkin – though he still loved it. I had to carry him up the stairs every night since “scary face” was right outside the front door (I didn’t mind the tight snuggles). Such a character, my Henry.

Of course Halloween was really cold and windy, despite the week leading up to it being super nice, but Henry braved the weather and made it to several houses. Henry had a special treat and was able to trick or treat with both of his grandmas who also braved the weather for him. The neighbor across the street was Minnie Mouse – how perfect! – and they trick or treated together for a bit, cutest pair ever. Henry has LOVED the Halloween candy, and I can’t lie, I like it too since I’m not above bribing him with it (“if you take a nap, you can have a piece of candy when you wake up”. hey, it works. usually.)

With all the fun we had, of course I took tons of photos. Today I’m sharing just a smattering of them (though still a lot), from the pumpkin patch/play place where Henry picked out his “big pumpkin” (that we paid too much for, only to have it rot on the porch before we carved it and I had to go buy a replacement + another to carve without him noticing), carving the pumpkins and Halloween itself.

(he was a little tired of pictures)

 

The only fall activity we haven’t done is eat caramel apples, though I’m hoping to still make some at home – pretty much just because I could really go for one 🙂 Leading up to Halloween we watched the Curious George Halloween special one million times, and the day after Halloween we had to switch to Christmas movies (since there’s not much out there for Thanksgiving) – and we’ve subsequently watched the Christmas Curious George and the three Mickey Mouse Christmas movies one million times already and it’s not even Thanksgiving yet. We’ve created a monster. I have to admit, it puts me into the Christmas spirit early this year – I’m not sure I can hold out until the day after Thanksgiving to decorate and get the tree.

Hope your Halloween was just as fun and magical!

{Justine}