THOUSANDS OF FREE BLOGGER TEMPLATES »

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Happy Halloween!


It is now the first weekend in November! The rain has settled in here in the northwest (which I find very comforting!) The leaves have past their prime and are falling off the trees at record pace, mushing in the streets and on the sidewalks. I never did take a picture of Truitt in a big pile of leaves this year. Maybe we'll get a sunny afternoon soon and I can still give it a try, but I may have missed my chance. Last weekend was definitely peak color for the leaves, with beautiful sunny weather too, but there didn't seem to be that many on the ground to rake up, plus I was completely exhausted from my girls weekend (more to follow on that event!) Oh well!

Yesterday was Halloween. Truitt was definitely curious about it and willing to play along, even though he didn't quite get it. It is interesting that he has been uber into his Halloween board book for a few weeks now, wanting to read it three or four times a day. He pulled it off the shelf after our first monthly trip to the grocery store in October. It took me a couple of days to realize that he must have noticed the pumpkins at the store and remembered seeing them on his book. From there it seems he started making the connections all on his own about all the decorations he was seeing.

Wednesday and Thursday night I finally HAD to put the finishing touches on Truitt's Charlie Brown costume, the jagged stripe! Since I do not know how to use a sewing machine, I just used felt and then did a quick whip stitch to put it on the shirt. I know it's not much, but as I sewed late into the night on Wednesday, I definitely felt a right of passage. I was sewing my child's costume! Even though I was tired, I was happy to really feel like a member of the mom club!

Halloween morning we drove off to Vancouver so Truitt could trick-or treat at my Dad and Step-mom's house (they had the day off as it is a major holiday for them!) , and stop by my mom's work. What a wonderful idea, right? Well, not when your kid is cutting two molars and didn't sleep the night before! It would have been okay had he woke up at his normal time, but as he slept in, then had to get right in the car, then be shuffled around for three hours without a real chance to run around, then drive home for an hour and twenty minutes. Needless to say, he was frustrated, and I was exhausted, and we won't be doing that again! If we go up again next year, it will be with a nice long stop somewhere so he can play for a good long while. But with two in tow next year, we'll just have to see!

Once we got home though I completely made it up to him, and his frustrations melted away, as did mine! Our town has a wonderful Halloween celebration for the kids. We don't get many trick-or-treaters as a result (maybe 5 to 10) but it really is fun anyway. At 3pm they close the main downtown street off and have hay rides and a hay maze down the street for the kids. Then at 4pm the store owners sit out front and pass out candy as the kids and parents make a giant parade line down and around the sidewalks to trick-or-treat. The coffee shop even had free coffee out for the parents! We just went to a few stores before Truitt was done, and of course the police and firemen stop was a must! Everytime he got a peice of candy he was intrigued with that one piece. After a few tries of people giving him candy, he started giving them his candy! Seems logical, he was just sharing too! Soon we just walked down the middle of the street and looked at all the great costumes. Everyone dresses up: kids, parents, and dogs too! We even saw a parrot!

After trick-or-treating it was happy hour at McMenamins, and some new friends Chrissy, Graham and their daughter Cora joined us for a quick dinner. Just a side note...since when does a lemonade cost as much as a pint of beer? Geesh!

We then walked home stopping at our neighbors along the way. I wish we would have left a little more time for this, it was more fun then I expected, and fun to reap the rewards of my months of searching for all the pieces of Truitt's costume.

At 8pm it was off to a co-workers Halloween party. We were exhausted, but it was fun to stop by for a little while. When Truitt lied down on the floor in the fetal position, we knew we had run our course! They live about six blocks from us, but by the time we drove home Truitt was out! He was so tired he didn't even wake up for a diaper change!

Wow, what a Halloween! Full of learning experiences for all (the biggest one for mom) and so much fun too!

0 comments: