Party of Five, originally uploaded by cheryl.
Halloween - a day of tricks and treats and costumes and candy. We weren't sure what to expect. Connor was, of course, excited. The twins, well, it's hard to tell. It's not something you can explain in advance, at least not at this stage. You just have to dress them up and hope for the best.
Grammy and Pappy came over for the day to help. We had an early dinner outside after Daddy grilled some steaks and baked potatoes. The boys played in the yard since they'd already had pizza earlier in the afternoon. Connor, of course, ate again. He doesn't pass up steak. Ever.
After dinner, it was time to get the boys dressed. Connor was eager and ready. The twins had to be coaxed inside. They were having too much fun in the back yard, and they weren't ready to come in at all.
Connor was first. His costume was easy. He had long ago decided on being a baseball player, and was doing nothing more than dressing up in his fall t-ball uniform. We did a long sleeve shirt under his t-shirt jersey, then his baseball pants, his cleats and his BlueJays hat. He was ready to go.
Xander was next. He was going to be Dash, from the Incredibles movie. It's a thin costume, so we needed something underneath to keep him warm. We opted, as usual, for those tight fitting winter pajamas that are often our "long underwear" layer in the winter when we're playing in the snow. It fit perfectly under the costume, and it also kept the scratchy velcro closures away from his back - win, win.
Last was Sawyer. We simply dressed him in black - sweatpants and his light-up Halloween shirt that Grammy got for all the boys last year - and then put his Tow Mater costume over the top. It's a three-dimensional costume with shoulder straps.
Each boy was given his McDonald's Happy Meal Halloween bucket, and it was time to go. We did a few pictures in the house, on the way down the sidewalk, and then it was time to go.
I took the first round at the house, passing out candy to the other trick-or-treaters in the neighborhood. Grammy, Pappy, and Daddy took the boys down our street and back up. Then Pappy and I switched places, with him handing out candy at our house while I joined the boys down the rest of the street and back (we live dead in the middle, so it worked out well).
Toward the end of that second loop, Xander was getting cranky. He was kind of limping (probably from his love of jumping off anything and everything, including a mishap on Saturday off of a bed). He also just wanted the very large blue sucker and nothing short of holding it would make him happy.
Grammy took the twins back to the house with Pappy, where they all stayed in the front yard handing out candy. Josh and I took Connor down another street in the neighborhood. He was ready and willing, but complained about being tired and needing to rest before it was all over.
It was a good night. The boys did surprisingly well. Sawyer in particular did great for his first time out. He walked up, took one piece of candy from the offered bowls, and turned to walk on. Of course, he didn't say trick-or-treat or thank-you, but he also didn't try to grab the whole bowl and dump it in his bucket either. He did great. Xander said trick-or-treat a time or two, but was mostly quiet, too. Connor wasn't so great on the trick-or-treat part, but was at least pretty good with the thank-you part.
All in all, a good Halloween in our new neighborhood. Here's hoping everyone else had a fun night of trick-or-treating in their part of the world!