Trick or Treat

Happy Halloween!! or Happy Belated anyways. Did you celebrate? Dress up? Take your kids out? Well, here in our house we have been looking forward to it for quite some time now. Not that Eric and I get into Halloween very much, we never were big on dressing up or going to parties...not sure why, I guess it just plays into our whole "homebody" type personalities. We always preferred to see the kids all dressed in their princess and monster costumes and pass out candy from home. Although there was that one year where things changed a bit and it will surely go down in history as one of my all time favorite Halloweens. It was back when Eric and I were first together. I might have been 16 years old at the time, Eric 18. We had been planning to stay in at his parents and pass out treats while we watched the little ones run from house to house. So the time comes and there we sat waiting...and waiting...and waiting. I don't think we got one single trick or treater. We even made our way to the front porch to see if we could gather up any kids that we could empty our candy bowl to and not one! I was so disappointed and Eric felt bad as he knew how much I was looking forward to it. He said he'd be right back and left me to talk with his mother for a while. Out of nowhere I finally see someone coming to the door and believe it or not, there was Eric...dressed in a giant pumpkin costume that was in the basement from a Halloween past. He had snuck down to dress up so that I wouldn't be disappointed in our wash of a night. What a guy huh?! No wonder I married him ;)

Now that you've gotten through my reminiscing I'm sure you're all waiting for the details on THIS Halloween. Not that Eric isn't interesting and all, but let's face it - Owen and Mason take the cake in this post. Like I said earlier, we have been looking forward to this night for a while now. We had gone back and forth for a couple months about what Owen wanted to dress up as, and what he thought his brother might like to be. We considered a fireman and a dalmatian, sharks-because his cousins in MA were sharks so he jumped on that idea for a while, and then we contemplated the famous Wolfman (a character from a NH theme park) among many, many other ideas along the way.  But no matter how many different costumes we came up with Owen always seemed to come back to the same one. He insisted that he and his brother should be tigers. I have absolutely NO idea why, where it came from...who knows. But, he was not going to let this one go. So, we finally get the costumes and tried them on while practicing the "roar" and "trick or treat" lines. It wasn't to long after that when Owen decided that he wished we was Mickey Mouse instead. Well, luckily I didn't run out and buy that costume too because he forgot and went right back to the tigers just like every other time. 

We spent the day talking about what we would do, how exciting this was, when we would go. We couldn't wait to get out there and experience the fun. Owen said Daddy needed to dress up too so Eric threw together a last minute costume and posed for a few pictures while I was in tears from laughing so hard. He decided not to go out in public in my leggings afterall, but I still have the proof that he wore them! At Owens request we had pizza for dinner and then got the boys dressed to go. We snapped a couple pix, got the boys in the wagon and off we went! Thank God we brought that wagon because as it turned out, our neighborhood doesn't seem to have much Halloween spirit. House after house and nothing but dark porch lights. Come on people!! Don't you know that my adorable little tigers have been looking forward to this for months?!? We could not have been more frustrated while we tried to stay positive and not let on that this trick or treat thing was turning into a bust. We walked for what seems like miles and finally came to a house with a light on! Owen did his cute little lines and the man gave him a fruit by the foot AND a full size butterfinger. WooHoo! Jackpot! We continued down a couple more streets while little Mason froze his little whiskered cheeks off and Owen shined his flashlight at us all. We only hit a few more houses who luckily filled the bucket up with a few things each,  so it turned out to look a lot more than you would think. We decided to head home as it was dark and cold and there wasn't a house in sight that looked to be welcoming trick or treaters. The boys didn't seem to mind and so we went back and opened up a few things to eat before getting ready for bed. I would like to say the whole thing was a flop, but I won't. To me it was at first, but after seeing the smiles on the boys faces and how much Owen enjoyed going up to peoples doors, even if it was only a handful of times it made it worth it. The boys wouldn't tell you that our neighbors stink at holiday spirit or that it wasn't fun walking around all night in the dark and cold. They'd tell you that they had a blast getting candy and got to be tigers while Mama and Daddy pulled them around in their wagon and that's what's important. Halloween turned out to be pretty happy after all! And lesson learned-when it comes to trick or treating next year, we're driving to a new neighborhood!