Halloweenie

I have a love/hate relationship with Halloween. I HATE (and I really cannot stress that enough) anything scary. I know a lot of people like it because of the adrenaline rush they get, but that doesn't happen to me. What happens is I stay up all night, have crazy anxiety, cry and then hate myself. It's a really fun combo. For example, one Halloween I thought it would be "fun" to watch the movie Carrie with Lauren and our bestie Ashley. I felt sick through the whole movie and that night (and several after) I slept with Lauren. I still cannot think about that movie without getting a little freaked out. I mean Sissy Spacek is creepy looking already but add in her crazy fundamentalist Mother who calls boobs "dirty pillows," pig's blood, telekinesis (and not the good kind like in Matilda), a young John Travolta and it's horrifying. Another Halloween mistake I made was going to a haunted house with Lauren and Garrett back when we were dating. At the time I thought I was tough and in college so I could handle it, unlike the last Haunted House I attempted (as in I never went inside) back in middle school. Well I was wrong. Very wrong. After the second room I was shaking, crying, and felt like all the blood had rushed out of my body. I ended up going through the rest of the house with my head in Garrett's chest and Lauren held a stranger's hand (true story). It really does not matter how many times I tell myself it's fake I am just a big weenie.

At the same time I do love, love, looooove lots of things that come with Halloween time. There's the leaves changing colors, pumpkin patches, costume shopping, cute decorations, Reese's pumpkins and I can start to wear my scarves again! (I have a scarf problem) For our first Halloween with Baby Jack I made sure to go all out. I picked out his costume in July and planned Halloween activities that would last us for days.  Jack was the cutest monster ever and my favorites were us carving pumpkins, Boo at the Zoo and trunk-or-treating.

Look at that baby!

Last year I bought our pumpkins at the grocery store because I figured a pumpkin patch would be pretty pointless with a little baby. This year I was really excited to go to a pumpkin patch and let Jackie boy pick out his very own pumpkin. I had been reading him books about Halloween and pumpkin patches so he knew exactly what to do. After finding the perfect pumpkin we checked out the animals, went on a hayride and played in the corn kernel box (which by the way, is genius).

   

The night before Halloween we had a little family pumpkin carving party. It was a doozy. Jack was actually able to participate this year and he kept cracking us up. He was totes grossed out by the crap inside the pumpkins and would freak whenever it touched him. (I may or may not do the same thing and now I'm realizing it might have been a learned behavior...) Anywee, he was absolutely thrilled with the end result. After we put the pumpkins outside Jack kept knocking on the door (from the inside, we didn't lock him out there with the pumpkins) and we would have to go open it so he could admire them.

   

Jack's costume this year, believe it or not, topped last year's (in my opinion). I had a much harder time picking out his costume because he's kind of a weird age - he isn't really a baby anymore but he isn't old enough to tell me what he wants to dress up as. Long story short, we already had a Texas Rangers jersey and hat. Then when we were in Texas a fabulous friend with several Little League playing boys gave me an old pair of baseball pants, socks and belt. I did have to take-in the pants, which was super fun without a sewing machine I might add. Anyways, it was totes worth it. He was so cute.

The weekend before Halloween we hit up the Riverwoods with the sibs for a the little Halloween festival. There were tons of people with there with kids in adorable costumes, a petting zoo, carriage rides, trick-or-treating and pumpkin bowling.

   

Actual Halloween was sups awesome. We had a full day - story time at the library, speech therapy party, trunk-or-treating and then regular trick-or-treating. Jack wore his costume from sun up until sun down, he knew he wouldn't get candy without it. He was in heaven.

   

The night ended with us sitting in our tiny hallway eating candy. It was way past Jack's bedtime and he had already had more candy then he needed, but we just couldn't say no. He would pick up piece of candy, show us and then nod his head up and down while smiling, basically he was letting us know it was okay for him to have another piece. 

 

We love Halloweenie!