Roar!

My original plan was for Anna to wear a bear costume and dress our yellow lab as a lion (lions and tigers and bears, oh my!), but my coworker offered to let us use her lion costume and I couldn't justify buying a new costume when we could use one for free.  My little 2 1/2 year old girl is wearing an 18 month sized costume.  The legs were a little short, but otherwise it fit just fine.

We actually went trick or treating twice- well okay, three times if you count our church's trunk or treat which we did on Saturday for something fun to do.  Our town has trick or treating hours on the Sunday closest to Halloween to avoid trick or treating after dark.  A long time ago before we moved here a girl was abducted around this area during trick or treating in the dark, and it's been scheduled like that for daylight ever since.  However, for the second year in a row, Daddy was required to go on a work trip during trick or treating, so he was not able to go with us.  We went anyway with our our daycare provider's family, just for fun.  My orignal plan worked out anyway, because they were all dressed as bears.

Lions, Tigers, and Bears (times three), oh my! 

(The best photo of the 5 kids, ages 5 and under)

Daddy got home from his work trip the morning of Halloween and so we went trick or treating again at the city I work in, because they have trick or treating on the actual date every year, so he could go with us for the first time.  Since Sam and Anna love going out and about, and judging from their excitement the first time, I knew they'd have a ball doing it again. 

Pumpkin carving

 Not so sure about the pulp

 

The pumpkin on the top right was Daddy's attempt at freehanding a Thomas face, per Sam's request.

Hangers...?

The other night I was trying to fold a load of laundry while Sam and Anna were playing in the same room with me (a somewhat futile attempt).  Lately, they like taking the hangers from me while I'm in the middle of hanging stuff up.  That night, Anna was hanging them off of her shirt while prancing around the room and this was our exchange:

Anna: "I'm dressing up."
Me:  "Dressing up for what?"
Anna: "For Halloween."
Me: "As a hanger???"
Anna: "Yup."

Since I laughed at her comical creativity, Sam decided to join in (which is usually the case with the two of them- Anna does something funny as the comedian in our home and Sam wants the happy attention too so he copies to be funny like her.) and he thought our dog Bella should be dressed up as a hanger too. 

They are just a little bit excited for Halloween, can you tell? We "practiced" trick or treating yesterday with their real costumes for Halloween (to practice saying trick or treat and thank you) and I couldn't get Anna to take her costume off afterward. It was entertaining to watch a lion play trains! Next time I'll have to take a picture of that, too.

Wet.

Trick-or-Treating in the rain meant that we went to two houses of neighbors we like, and that's it.  I'm glad my duo is too young to know any difference!

We spent most of the time watching wet Trick-or-Treaters from the comfort of our dry living room.

Missing Out On Halloween

I've tried not to focus on the fact that my husband was going to be gone on a work trip over Halloween.  I hadn't mentioned it on here yet, and I really put it out of my mind until I was forced to acknowledge it and prepare to solo parent for a week.  He did try to get out of it with no luck. 

I think it stinks though, that for Sam and Anna's first "real" Halloween, he's missing it.  Sam and Anna were 7 months old last year- we dressed them up, but they had no clue about any of the festivities.  We didn't take them anywhere in their costumes.  It was purely for a photo op.

Anna banana and Sam our little monkey man- Halloween 2010. 

I attempted to sell their costumes on craigslist, but I just couldn't break them up to two different people.  Maybe I just need to hang onto their first costumes forever?

This year, Sam and Anna are learning some of what Halloween is about.  Anna loves "umpkees!" (She's in a stage where she adds "ee" to most words, probably because she loves her "babies" aka dolls so much right now.)   They helped us carve a pumpkin.  We went on a lighted pumpkin walk at the local nature area.  I took them to our church's trunk or treat to practice wearing their costumes, and get more comfortable being around other dressed up kids.  And I plan on taking them Trick-or-Treating... if only to a few of our neighbors.

pumpkin carving

Anna was a little unsure of the pumpkin once it had a face.  She kept covering her eyes and then peeking at it through her fingers.  It was too cute for words.

(side note- now that I have my own children and plan to take them trick-or-treating, it dawned on me that it feels weird to go get candy from other people for my children, for free. Like, if I wanted my child to eat something, I should be buying it myself.  The act of going to someone's door for food seems odd. Does anyone else feel this way?)

Next year Sam and Anna will get it even more, and be able to say "trick-or-treat!" even more clearly.  Maybe next October when they are 2 1/2 years old, I'll consider that their first real Halloween.  But for now, I'm feeling a little sad that I'll be taking them around trick-or-treating this year, for the first time without their daddy with us.

Our costumes Halloween 2011: a flower and a bumblebee

 (poor girl fell right before this picture and got mud all over her legs)

side shot for the stinger view

Blurry, but I've never been able to capture Sam and Anna holding hands in a photo before.  I was soooo sad when I saw that they were running too fast for it to be in focus.

The flower costume was $3 at a garage sale.  The bee costume was chosen because, well- every flower needs a bee, right?  I almost changed my mind and did a bee and a ladybug at the last minute, but I wanted something that went together without being too common/overdone.

Heck, I'm just glad they both tolerated wearing a getup for Halloween at all!

First Halloween

First, our skeleton shirts (shown in my post a year ago!) They were just the right size!

Both babies inherited my husband's money toes, so it seemed just right that our Monkey-Toe-Man was a monkey for Halloween and one of Anna's nicknames is Anna-Banana, so there you go. I really wanted two costumes that went together- and I'm pretty sure I would never be able to convince Anna to be a banana for Halloween once she understand what wearing a costume is all about!

(If you were wondering why Sam has green socks on- they are Frankenstein socks.)

They were unusually serious today, and I could not get a smiling picture from both of them. I think it's because we went for a walk in the woods earlier as a family, and all that fresh air tuckered them out. Oh well- usually I do pretty well with the smiles!

I can't wait until next year when we can actually take them Trick-or-Treating instead of hoping the Trick-or-Treaters don't wake them up from their nap! (We have scheduled trick-or-treating hours during daylight in our area)

Advice, Please!

There's a few things that have been on my mind lately that I would love a little bit of advice about.

1. We experience frigid Wisconsin winters. I'm a little unsure what to do about winter clothing for Sam and Anna. Everywhere I look, the bunting-type snowsuits go up to 6-9 month or 12 month size. The winter coats/snowpant separates start at 12 month size. Sam and Anna are just starting to get into 6-9 month clothing. What do I get for them? I wonder if a 6-9 month bunting would last the entire winter, and they are definitely not as warm as the coat/snowpant combos. I think they'd be swimming in the 12 month coat/snowpant options though. And will they be able to crawl/play in the snow (when they learn how to crawl) in the buntings? I want to get them soon so we don't have to forgo walks on chilly days (although today hit a rare 80 degrees, this morning it was in the 40's). Help, please!

2. Now that Sam and Anna are older babies, I think we need to branch out and get some more sophisticated toys for their age. I've been beginning to get the feeling that they are bored of the same old rattles and such. We have a V-Tech roll ball, a standing table, and several stacking toys (and of course, an exersaucer and jumperoo) that are beyond the simple rattle stage. What toys did your child(ren) absolutely love at around 7 months?

3. The big Halloween question. Sam and Anna have adorable costumes hanging in their closet. Now that I've gotten them, I actually started to think about the logical side of my 7 month old babies and Halloween. Is it acceptable to take them trick or treating, even though they can't eat any of it, just to show off how cute they are? And if it isn't, then what do we do with them to make use of their cute costumes? I'm thinking dress them up and keep them at home to help pass out candy... and take lots of pictures- am I right?

Thanks! Y'all rock!