"Dress like a fireman??" Halloween 2012

While we've dressed Joshua up for Halloween every year since he was born (2010 tiger, 2011 Clark Kent), this was the first year we actually took him out trick-or-treating.  And thanks to Hurricane Sandy, we got to cheat a little and have two trick-or-treating experiences -- one on Halloween out in Indy, and one on "Christoween," the Governor-mandated delayed Halloween in NJ on November 5.  Hey, it was an executive order -- we HAD to go out for more candy on the 5th!  :)

This year, Joshua was a fireman and Sophia was his Dalmatian puppy.  (I figure I have to do coordinating costumes while the kids are young enough for me to pick out their costumes for them!)  In preparation for Halloween, we've spent time reading about firefighters and fire trucks, and getting Joshua excited about being a fireman for a night.  He does have a bit of a willful streak with regard to what he wears, so I was worried he might not want to wear his costume, but when I asked him if he wanted to dress like a fireman, his face lit up and he got so excited.  It was super cute!  And he continued to ask to dress like a fireman after Halloween was over -- so really, it was a good thing we had a second round of ToTing!

I got a few cute snapshots of each of the kids in their costumes while we were out in Indy:








But this was the very, very best I could get of the both of them together:


Oh well, hopefully we'll have better luck next year...

We had a lot of fun during both nights of trick-or-treating!  The Indy night was a good trial run for us -- it took several houses for Joshua to learn the concept of ringing a doorbell, saying "trick or treat," picking out some candy, and *not* trying to walk into the house.  :)  By the time we went trick-or-treating in Princeton, he was an old pro.  Still a little shy about saying "trick or treat" at first, but he eventually warmed up to each new neighbor and thought it was a ton of fun to put new candies in his little plastic pumpkin bucket.




In Joshua's eyes, the candy he collected was an assortment of fun new toys to play with -- he hasn't yet eaten any candy, so he doesn't know what he's missing.  ;)  And of course, for Joshua, toys = things to sort and organize and collate...  As soon as we brought his haul home, he sorted the candy by shape and color.  His OCD mama was so proud!


It's so fun starting holiday traditions now that Joshua is getting old enough to be a full participant!  We're looking forward to diving into more holiday traditions with him this year!