Trick-or-Treat... and other Halloween Happenings

I cannot remember ever doing so much celebrating at Halloween - - even as a kid!

Costume Party
Last weekend (the 24th) we attended a costume party for our neighbor who turned three. The birthday boy, Adam, is dressed as Spiderman (he lives just a couple of doors down) and Snow White, Addison, lives directly across the street. These kids all love each other!
(Snow White and our Fire Fighter have been known to scream for each other hysterically through closed windows and doors... as though they have a sixth sense about the other's presence! Preston cries for her when her family's cars leave and always wants to know where they are going!)

We weren't sure if Gracie would love being in her "fire truck" or just the opposite. I took a ton of pictures just in case she never got in it again! She loved it though, and thought she was "all that" sitting in her special truck.


Just hangin' out


The fire fighter from every angle!


The boys in the bounce house


The witch on stilts Gracie liked her; Preston, well, not so much!



Miscellaneous Halloween Shenanigans!

We brought out old costumes (the duck was supposed to be Gracie's last year, but she wasn't having any part of it - - then or now!) and the wig belonged to our old friend, Marena, who was the greatest clown every Halloween. (She was silent and only used a notepad and a horn to communicate! It was a riot!) The witch hat was at WalMart and Preston insisted we both try it on!



Pumpkin Carving

Unfortunately, we didn't get a picture of the finished products and with the heat we've been having, they all shriveled up before Halloween night!

School Harvest Parade

-Betty Lou, Gracie's trusted aid, starring as the pirate pushing the dalmatian in her fire truck.
-The "Ring Leader" is our school principal.
-The "Cal Trans Worker," one of the Instructional Aids in the upper grade classroom, volunteered to take Preston on the parade walk. He happily went with her and came back with a bag of loot!
-"Jack" cracked me up, so I had to take his picture!

Gracie's classmates... aren't they soooo cute?!
&
Betty Lou and Gracie... aren't they soooo cute, too?!

And, finally... Halloween!

Fortunately, John got off work a bit early and was able to join us for a little Trick-or-Treating. Unfortunately, Miss Gracie ended Friday night with a fever and cough (which explains her "rough" days lately). She spent the better part of Saturday laying around pretty miserable and getting regular breathing treatments along with Tylenol for her fever. (Thus, no spots on her face and no red "collar.") I tried to time her breathing treatments so she'd feel well enough to go to a few houses, but she tuckered out pretty quickly. We did manage a couple of pictures before John took her home, though.


The three musketeers... Adam as Spiderman, Addison as Snow White and Preston as the Fire Fighter

The "Tot Posse" had a blast trick-or-treating together!

*John constructed Gracie's fire truck with some of our moving boxes and (a lot) of tape. He and Preston put on the first coat of red paint. I put on a second coat, painted the "bumper," made the headlights, used the free paint sticks at Lowe's to make the ladder, printed an enlarged Orange County Fire Authority shield off the Internet and added finishing touches with puffy paints and glitter. To make her dalmatian shirt, I just used slick black fabric paint and made spots everywhere. Her trach ties were painted red to serve as her dalmatian "collar." For Preston's T-shirt, I used iron-on printer sheets and printed a small shield and the text. John and I had so much fun putting it all together for them! And, let's just be honest... you haven't truly experienced Halloween until you've had a cardboard-constructed costume! And, you're not a "Halloween Mom" until you've suffered a costume-related burn from a glue gun!

Here are two quick videos that crack me up!

In the first one, he's excited and eager (he was every time!) to race to the door first and say "Trick-or-Treat," but wasn't completely getting the concept of knocking and waiting for the door to be opened!



About 20 seconds into the second one, Preston is checking to make sure that his friends got equal loot! I love how he and Adam look down into their loot bags!