Halloween 2013

One of Joshua's favorite books this year has been "The Story of Ferdinand," so we decided together that he would be Ferdinand for Halloween this year.  And since Ferdinand loves to "sit just quietly and smell the flowers," we thought it would be appropriate for Sophia to be a little pink flower!


And Joshua is old enough this year to get into the acting part of being in a costume -- I asked him to smell the flower like Ferdinand does, and he fully complied!



We had two Halloween-related parties with Joshua's preschool class this year.  The first was a fun little gathering at Thomas' house, where the kids dressed up in their costumes and had lots of fun unstructured playtime and Halloween treats.  (For days afterward, Joshua asked if we could go back to Thomas' house so he could have lollipops!)





And then there was a costume parade and celebration at Joshua's school.  The kids went one by one across a low balance beam, stopped in the middle, and announced to the crowd of parents what they were for Halloween.  Joshua marched out happily when it was his turn, and proudly shouted out "Ferdinand!!"  I was so proud!



The kids finished up by singing some fall-themed songs and gleefully showing all of us parents their favorite hand motions.



So, so absurdly cute.  :)  And so much fun, now that Joshua is getting old enough to really enjoy holiday traditions like this!

"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!

Faster than a speeding bullet!

OK, so I have to confess -- I found my idea for Joshua's Halloween costume this year on Pinterest, so I can't exactly claim creativity points on this one.  But I still think our wee Clark Kent is the cutest Clark Kent ever!

We already had most of the pieces of this costume -- a cute little navy blazer for him to wear to weddings and for Christmas, plus Superman PJs (because every toddler boy looks ridiculously adorable in Superman PJs!).  The only thing missing was horn-rimmed glasses.  I found a $3 pair on Amazon -- and it's a good thing I didn't spend any more on them, because the first time I let him play with them, in hopes of getting him acclimated to actually putting them on his face, he gleefully snapped off one of the stems within seconds.  Oops.  But I taped it back on, and let him just hold them during our little Halloween "photo session," and I think it still works!

So without further ado -- the cutest Clark Kent / Superman ever!








And my very, very favorite:



[Just as a comparison: I can't believe how much he's grown up since last Halloween!]

Halloween and Steven's birthday!

I'm really late on blogging about this, but -- here's what we did on Halloween!  :)

Our friend Steven (known around these parts as Phil's dad) turned 30 on Halloween, so Hilary threw a Halloween/birthday party for him that evening after small group.  The kiddos dressed up (along with some of the adults!), and we all had a grand time eating Indian food, watching the kids play, and greeting trick-or-treaters.

I think it's so funny watching Joshua and Phil together.  Phil is about 4.5 months younger than Joshua, but he's bigger and heavier... So I'm always a little surprised that he's not sitting or crawling or anywhere near as active as our little guy!  He's certainly getting more interactive these days, though, and it's a joy watching our boys get to know each other and figure out this whole playing together thing.  :)


Before the costumes (since Joshua in his very padded tiger costume wouldn't have fit in his carseat):
playing with Phil's toys, Phil's mom, and Phil.  :)


The birthday boy and his son 

Phil the puppy and Joshua the tiger! 

The B family in their Halloween/birthday getup 

Joshua got overheated in his tiger costume, so we took off the top part 
Most of the gang who were there -- yay for small group friends!
We always have the best time at Hilary and Steven's parties.  :) Thanks again for hosting us and giving us great memories for Joshua's very first Halloween!

I'm a wee tiger!

A tiger says "ROAR!"


Watch me hunt my prey!


Mama?  Are you watching?


Ooh, this camera lens looks tasty...


GREAT BIG SCARY ROAR!


Wait, come back, mama!  Didn't mean to scare you!  Don't wanna be a wee tiger any more -- wanna be your little boy!


(And just because David immediately thought of the famous "death of a loyalist soldier" photo when he saw this one...)



Halloween costumes are FUN!

Halloween Party!

For Halloween last weekend, we threw our first party in our new place! We invited our small groups, and had an open invitation to our church's young adult ministry -- we ended up having about twenty people all told, in varying degrees of costumed festivity. :)

It's so fun hosting our small group friends. Everyone always brings a ton of food, and even though I tell myself it'll be different this time, I always end up making too much myself, and we have tons of leftovers afterwards... But it's all good, because the leftovers got to make guest appearances at a birthday party on Sunday, on the PEF fall break service trip this week, and at small group on Wednesday... It's the gift that keeps on giving!

Funny story about Halloween candy... Apparently, if you wait until Halloween itself, and you go to Sam's Club to buy your candy, the only option you'll have left is the giant candy bar fundraising pack. You know, the kind that band kids would walk around with in order to raise money for new uniforms every year? So this year, we were the awesome apartment giving out full-size candy bars (and real ones, too, no off-brand weird stuff for us, no sir!. Or at least, we would have been, if we didn't live in an apartment complex where you have to be buzzed in to enter the front door... Sadly, no children knocked on our door on Saturday.

But at least we had a great group of friends to hang out with!


Me and Eggi's first Halloween costume; Tae and Jeff looking cute, as always!


John as Luther, ready to nail the 95 theses to the Wittenberg church doors


Granstedts and Lieus (and our massive bowl of ridiculously large candy bars)


Some of the food (two other countertops of drinks and snacks!)


Pumpkin carving on our porch!
(This was Andrew's first jack-o-lantern!)


Lis, Milla and Krista -- Krista was amazingly fast at pumpkin carving!


Carrie and Matt as Ms. Frizz and Bill Nye the Science Guy
(Matt had just passed his generals -- so they baked a pumpkin pie from scratch to celebrate!
And by "from scratch," I mean "roasted the pumpkin, and grated cinnamon sticks"...)


Guys vs. girls Taboo!


Andrew is super competitive...


...and so is Matt, in his own way...

We had so much fun having all of you over for the holiday festivities! Both YAC and our small groups are really thriving this year, and we really loved having everyone over. Looking forward to more fun times with this awesome group of friends!

For the full set of Halloween photos, check out this SmugMug gallery.