Halloween Activities

Logan had decided that he wanted to be Mickey Mouse for Halloween, which worked out perfectly for me since we had a hand-me-down costume that my Mom made for my nephew 11 years ago. He was 4 at the time and my other nephew who wore it last year was 4, so I thought it might be big. The jacket and head fit him perfectly. My SIL couldn't find the pants, so my Mom just whipped up a new pair. I affixed two white felt circles on his red pants and he was set to go!

Since Carter was Donald Duck (another hand me down) last year, he couldn't duplicate...but I do love a good theme, so I had my Mom make a Pluto costume. She got tan fleece and used felt sticky letters to spell PLUTO across his chest. She made an adorable hat with black, thin, floppy ears. I affixed a green collar around the top to be Pluto's collar. He was an adorable puppy!

Only one minor problem was that anytime the boys put their costumes on, Logan wanted to be Pluto. He was there the night my Mom made it and watched every step and pretended to be a dog the whole night. Thankfully I was able to reason with the almost 3 year old every time he had to wear it...which was a lot within a few days.

Thursday, we had a small Halloween party with some of the moms from our Moms group. The boys wore their outfits for almost the entire time. We managed to get a few cute pictures.

Friday morning we surprised Miss Wendy at the library. It was the day for the storytime kids to dress up...so we crashed on a great day. She nearly cried when she saw them...not only does she love my kids, but she is Disney obsessed!!! So Mickey Mouse and Pluto were perfect costumes to surprise her with! Friday afternoon we had safety trick or treat. In the small pretend town where kids learn to obey stop signs and crossing streets in a little community, each company/police/fire dept./library picks a house and hands out candy. It is a great trick or treating experience done in 10 minutes or less! Then they played at the playground.....and then we headed to the picture studio to get their professional pictures done - Logan did fantastic as always...such a ham for the camera! Carter did pretty well but needed extra encouragement and smarties to keep going. It was a LONG day!

Saturday at lunchtime we had a halloween birthday party for some of our friends...so on went the costumes again! Logan won for Coolest Costume and Carter won for Funniest Costume. Yay!!! That evening we went down to WillisTower and enjoyed a Monster Mash party on the 66th floor. It was very fun. The kids had fun and eventually warmed up to the haunted maze, they watched some Scooby Doo, played games and enjoyed some fun food.

Sunday....was a day of rest!

Monday...Halloween.....here we go! John got home early and we woke the boys up from their nap so we could trick or treat during daylight and while it wasn't too busy out. We went with just our little family...next year it'd be fun to go with some friends. We had a couple of cranky boys that he slid into their costumes. They warmed up once we busted out the wagon. They walked up to the first house (figures that the first house would have lots of spooky decorations, but they weren't too scared). They waited quite a bit of time after ringing the doorbell...to the point that Carter gave up and went back to the wagon...but Logan stuck it out! He said Trick or Treat and said Thank you. Very cute! We went around the block and they both got the hang of it and ran up to houses and then hopped back in the wagon. Then Logan didn't want to ride in the wagon, he wanted to pull the wagon. Then Carter bonked his head on the wagon and wanted Daddy to carry him. Shortly after Logan declared that he was done. I even bribed him by saying he could get more candy...nope, he was done. Carter still did a few houses as we made our way back. With some people sitting outside, I rolled Logan up to them. People still got a kick out of them in their costumes. Then soon after Logan wanted Daddy to carry him. So glad I brought the wagon...to hold nothing. We circled back to our house. Logan stripped off his costume as he came up the driveway.

They dumped out their candy and each got to eat a little bit before dinner.

Logan got to pick out 10 pieces to keep. The rest of the candy went in our bowl to give to others. At the end of the night, we still had some leftover. My friend Hannah's brother-in-law is in Afghanistan serving....so she collected 20 pounds of leftover candy from our friends and shipped it to him.

It was a great Halloween and a great first time trick or treating in our neighborhood!!!