After a pretty good run, I’ve been a bad blogger this week. Between Halloween and a recent diagnosis of walking pneumonia for little Finn (which Sona and I likely have, too), it’s been a busy one.
Still, I wanted to take some time to share a bunch of photos from our Halloween festivities. I’m always pretty pumped about the holidays, but I was uber jazzed about Halloween this year. Finn seemed to be into it, himself, which made it all the more exciting. Last year, I’m pretty sure he had NO idea what was going on. Which is maybe why he looked like this the whole time:
This year, though, we’d been reviewing the trick-or-treating protocol for at least a month, and he’d picked out a costume in early September. “What do you want to be for Halloween?” I asked. “A fireman!” he said. That answer also sometimes changed to a “fireman shark,” which I really fought for, but he refused to wear the shark mask under his fireman hat. Oh, well. Can’t win them all.
We’d been painting pumpkins for a good week before we decided to carve them.
“I don’t eat it,” he said when dipping his finger into the paint. (Saying “I don’t _________________.” is his new thing. “I don’t hit mommy.” “I don’t eat PlayDoh.” “I don’t cry at doctor.”)
The Friday before Halloween, we tried to do a family carving session. It quickly became clear that: 1. Two year olds don’t have the patience for that activity. 2. It probably wasn’t a good idea to bring out a ton of toddler-sized knives around Finn.
So, we quickly took the knives away from him and exchanged them for more paint.
Meanwhile, Sona became laser-focused on completing one of the most difficult pumpkin patterns. (This was an exercise in our individual personalities.)
I carved a spider, by request. Finn still insists he did it. Yeah, okay kid.
Eventually, we just let him watch YouTube videos and eat brownies while we finished.
He was still pretty impressed with the results. For like 45 seconds.
Saturday morning, our neighborhood held all of their yearly Halloween festivities: a block party, a costume parade, a fall fest at the large garden center, and trick-or-treating along the main stretch of shops. Have I mentioned how much I love our ‘hood?
It was really cold–like 40 degrees–but Finn’s costume allowed for lots of layering. So, we toughed it out.
Honestly, I’m just amazed that he actually WORE his costume without a fight. He’s not a dress-up kind of kid, and we were worried he wouldn’t want to keep it on.
Right as the parade kicked off, Finn got a huge surprise: Mimi and Pops showed up! He was so happy.
We paraded to the garden center, where we enjoyed a maze, some photo-ops, a petting zoo, and pony rides.
There was also a SUPER CREEPY clown. How did Finn not run away screaming? I have no idea.
By the time we got to trick-or-treating, we’d already been out in the cold for over an hour. Still, Finn wanted to keep going. MUST. GET. ALL. THE. CANDY.
One thing was the same as last year: he ate candy the entire time, especially suckers.
On Halloween, we started with an afternoon party at his daycare. This is Finn and his BFF, Darcy.
She’s the kind of woman I want to be when I grow up.
Then, we went home to trick-or-treat through our neighborhood, which is always regarded as one of the best trick-or-treating spots around. It was even colder than the weekend–like 39 degrees–but we bundled up.
Sona and I had to join in on the fun. #squad
Mimi and Pops joined in, too.
By the time we were done, Finn was OVER IT. He was freezing cold, tired, over-hungry, and, apparently, brewing a case of pneumonia. Even still, we had such a good few days of fun, and I’m already excited about next year.
In the shower that night, Finn said “Next time, GORILLA!”
