Halloween!

I'm BACK!!!  I have not posted in FOREVER it feels like!  (I have a theory that when people who blog are first pregnant they neglect their blog, either out of fear of writing something that will give it away, or they just plain don't feel up to it.  Don't worry, my friends: I am NOT with child!  I have just been crazy busy.)

Eddie and I were really looking forward to Halloween this year...okay, maybe Eddie wasn't really looking forward to it, but I certainly was (and he humored me!).  We have been telling Cal all about dressing up and trick-or-treating and now that he's at such a talkative stage, we thought it'd be fun taking him out.

I had a feeling, however, that getting him into a costume would prove to be challenging.

He wore a Lightning McQueen costume at school one time while playing dress up, so I found it online and ordered it for him to wear for Halloween.  It came and he looked at it and refused to let me put it on him.  Okkaayyyyyy.  He put it half way on by himself once, but when he saw me looking, took it off and refused to put it back on. 

My mom saw an airplane costume in Target and knowing how much Cal loves airplanes, she bought it for him.  He wanted nothing to do with it!  I put it on myself (start laughing now), and that made him want to wear it, but he only wore it for about 2 minutes and then was done with it.

Cal is really into animals these days and after seeing The Lion King, I thought he might want to be a lion.  I found the costume and brought it home.  He immediately grabbed it and put it on....but quickly took it off and didn't want to wear it again.

Are you seeing a trend of my little strong-willed man??

WELL, on Sunday, we had a birthday party for two of Cal's friends.  It was a Halloween themed party and kids were to wear costumes.  We had just gotten in from Texas, and we had to wake up Cal, so he was a little crank-tastic.  I laid out both the Lightning McQueen costume and the lion costume and asked him what he wanted to wear.  He said "no lion. I want McQueen" so we grabbed the costume and headed out.

He wore the car without a fuss, thankfully, and Andy was more than happy to be a pumpkin!!

getting ready to leave the house

my little McQueen at the party

Brad Mickey arrived the same time we did-- the boys were sooo excited!

off roading

Andy was worn out from a long day of travel!

Before we went to Texas, Andy's playgroup was getting together for the little ones to wear their costumes.  A bunch of people had last minute conflicts/sickness, so the play group was really small, but it was SO cute to see these little ones in costume!!!

Andy the zebra!

Andy and Charlie...our own little safari

how freaking cute is this watermelon?  (and andy is saying: "excuse me... there seems to be something on my head...")

they all look a tad panicked... ha!

Halloween Night:

It rained on Halloween and we were pretty disappointed.  We had plans to go to a little neighborhood get together loaded with kids, but outside....but that got rained out, so some friends of ours stepped up to the plate and invited everyone over to just hang out (with fingers crossed that the rain would cease).  We ended up having a GREAT time!

Before we could leave the house, we had to get in costume.  Eddie and I decided that since we spent the money on the lion, we were going to have ourselves a lion!  We wrestled that squirming two year old into the costume...

And Mr. Andy was just as happy as can be to be a zebra... he's just waiting it out in the carseat:

the kid loves his fingers!

I offered Cal a treat once the costume was on (total bribery....worst mother ever, I know.  Whatever.).  He took the treat and all of a sudden, he was the happiest little lion ever!

see the treats? 

 Once we arrived at the get together, Cal did not want to take off his hood.  He was having a great time playing in costume!

with Owen, the train

trying to get some of the kids...we couldn't get all of them!

my loves

 We left our friends' house just before 7:00 and the rain had stopped.  We decided we needed to take him to a few houses for some trick-or-treating.  We were already in the best neighborhood for it, so we parked down the street and let Cal run the cul-de-sac.  

This is super cheesy, but it was honestly one of my favorite memories so far in parenting.  I had Andy in the Bjorn on me, just laughing non-stop, and Cal was in between me and Eddie holding our hands, chatting up a storm and just SO happy.  We were all just SO happy-- it was great.  It was one of those nights that just made me smile...(see? cheesy.)

he is asking to hold my hand here....love

momma looks like she has her hands full, but she's one happy lady :)

After hitting about 10 houses, Cal thought trick-or-treating was the greatest.  He would walk right up to a house, hold out his bag and say "trick-or-treat!" and then they would give him candy and his eyes would get real big and he would say "thank youuuuuu!" and then turn around to show me.  It. was. awesome.

We got home around 8:00 and got the kids bathed and in bed fairly quickly.  We finally sat down to eat some dinner around 9 and had off all of the lights outside the house, and the only lights on in the house were in the kitchen...and the doorbell rang.  Some stupid teenagers were wanting candy after 9.  I mean, come on. AND our lights were off! The dog was barking too....but the boys were so tired they didn't wake up....those teenagers are lucky! ha!

On Tuesday, the kids wore their costumes to school for a little parade and some games.  Eddie had an early meeting this day so I was on my own to get Cal in the costume- ha! He got to pick out his jammies the night before because he was so tired, and he picked out some crazy mismatched top and bottom-- like the most pattern filled top you can imagine against the most pattern-filled pants... normally, who cares, they are pajamas, right? well...

Cal REALLY did not want to take off these awesome jammies that he picked out, so I told him he could keep them on under his lion costume-- he was fine with that!  Got him in the costume without much fight at all!

running into school-- so excited!

with Hunter  (who was obsessed with his mom's camera)

some of Cal's class

Once the kids came down the hall, there were games set up in the great room.  They went "fishing" for treats (Cal thought this was AMAZING-- he spent the rest of the day telling me "I went fisheeeeng!"), pinned the nose on the pumpkin, played musical chairs, and lots more.  Cal had a great time.

fishing!

no, Cal....the nose does NOT go over the eye...hmmmm

I just love this one of Cal and Tatum...so sweet!

I came back after drop off to see the parade and help out with games, etc, as the teachers requested some extra hands.  When I left, there was still 2 hours left in the day, and Cal was super upset I was leaving for whatever reason.  His teacher hugged him to calm him down, and as I walked out the door, I heard her say, "okay, Cal, let's just get you out of this costume..."  I spun around and said "WHAT?" I thought they were leaving the costumes on all day (hence allowing for the crazy mismatched pjs!).  So my child was "that kid" in preschool, running around in some construction zone shirt, bicycle pants and some sneakers.... but he was grinning ear to ear.  And that's all that matters!

Safe to say Halloween was a success!

With how much fun we had this year, I can only imagine next year!