Halloween

Yes, we're talking about Halloween in January. We really wanted to make sure that these pictures made in onto the web though...
This was the first year that I got the sense that Halloween is going to be a real undertaking for the next little while. We need a costume for school. We need a costume for trick-or-treating. We need a costume for friends' parties. Some costumes need to be suitable for outside, some for inside. Throw in some flip-floppiness from the kids and this all gets a little crazy. Excerpt from Max this year: "I want to be a fireman! No, I really want to be a pumpkin! Mommy, I told you, I'm NOT being a pumpkin this year! I want to be a fireman! Daddy, can I be a doctor? I was Bob the Builder before, can I be him again?"
Strip all that away, though, and the kids had a really great time. Max and Leo were both really into pumpkin-carving (well, they were into scooping the seeds out and choosing insanely hard designs for us to carve before running off to play) and Leo was really REALLY into trick-or-treating.

Our adventures this year started with a visit to the Agriculture Museum for a big Halloween party. This involved a mini-pumpkin decorating session, a presentation on making apple cider, a visit to the dairy barn and a stop by the kitchen to sample some yummy baking. One particularly funny incident happened in the barn where the dairy calves are kept: Leo went to feed hay to one of them and then the calf went bonkers and starting licking the heck out of Leo's costume. Leo thought it was pretty funny. I never really thought he'd lose a hand or anything so I took a couple of pictures instead.

On Monday, both of the kids got spiffed up in their indoor costumes (that's Leo as Diego, for those of you who might not be familiar with the character) for their parties at daycare and school. Henry also got in on the action.

Auntie Laramie and Uncle James came over to trick-or-treat with the kids and they were rocking some seriously awesome clown costumes. The weather was pretty great (unlike last year's brutal cold) so the kids could pretty much wear whatever they wanted. In the end, the marauding party was made up of Laramie, James, Holly, Leo and Max while I stayed home with Auntie Karen and Henry to give out candy. Our neighbourhood is AWESOME for trick-or-treating - almost every house on our street had pumpkins and several houses had more elaborate displays including one place a few doors down that had a whole driveway full of Halloween stuff with a smoke machine, faux animals in big cages, and sound effects!!!!

This last picture was our attempt to capture the moment when Leo lost all self-control and started running around screaming "I HAPPY! I HAPPY!". The next day, when I asked the boys about their days after I got home from work, Leo said "No good." I asked "Why not? What happened?". Leo replied, "No tricktreating." Awesome.