Halloween 2016

Oh, Halloween.  You are my favorite for sure.  I love everything about this time of the year.  Cooler weather, fall colors on the trees, and of course pumpkin everything.  Just like last year, this year we crammed about a weeks worth of seasonal activities into a span of a few days.  By the time Halloween hit I think Arlo was like - "I get to do this again?!"  This year Arlo wanted to be Handy Manny, a cartoon handyman that is todays bilingual version of Bob the Builder.  I would be lying if I said I didn't put the bug in his ear to be Manny after falling in love with the show last winter (yes, I actually think about Halloween ten months in advance.)  Thankfully Arlo was still on board with the idea when October rolled around, although he did say a few times when asked that he also wanted to be a dinosaur and a monster.  Keeping with my current theme of keeping things as simple as I could, I did the best I could to put together a Handy Manny-like costume without worrying about being too spot on.  I ordered the hat and shirt (a close enough match for me) online, made his tool belt from inexpensive craft felt I already had on hand (the night before our first Halloween event I might add), and dressed him in a pair of slightly too-big pants so we could cuff them.  He also wore some boots we already had on hand, and the tool set was bought on Amazon.  He was super excited to dress up and loved telling people he was Handy Manny - and had to correct about half of everyone because they all thought he was Bob the Builder, ha!  Oliver spent all his time at the Halloween events in the carrier so he wore the pumpkin hat I recently crocheted for his two month photos. 

Our first Halloween event was one we also did last year - story time and trick or treat around our local library.  So fun!  We went with Arlo's little friend Noah who was dressed as Daniel Tiger.

The Friday before Halloween we went to visit Erik at work where they had trunk or treat and games for the kids to play.  After we left we headed to the nearby community center where they had a huge halloween event - more trunk or treat and a gym full of games.  Arlo had so much fun, Oliver slept happily in the carrier the whole time.  I was happy to learn that all of the stops had non-candy options so Arlo came home with a lot of stickers, pencils, and small toys instead of candy that he wouldn't be able to eat.

Saturday we went to a local farm and pumpkin patch.  I had been looking forward to doing this all month, and it was so worth the wait.  They had animals to visit and feed, a giant corn pit to play in (equally fun for the adults!), a corn maze, tire swings, and several other fun activities for the kids.  We ended the visit with a hayride to the pumpkin patch where we picked out our own pumpkins.  We stayed there all morning and when it was time to leave Arlo ran away from us crying and yelling that he didn't want to go, ha!  Visiting this farm will definitely become an annual B family tradition.

 

Sunday evening we carved our pumpkins.  Keeping things simple we did just two this year.  Erik made a traditional jack-o-lantern face and I let Arlo pick out the stencil for his pumpkin, he choose a spider which is no surprise since he has a slight spider obsession lately.

notice the spooky Lucy face in the background?

Monday was finally Halloween and of course that day both kids napped until dinner time so by the time we got costumes on it was almost dark and I couldn't take any photos outside.  So here are the kids before we headed out:

 

In case you are wondering how vegans do Halloween... Well, we are still figuring that out year by year.  Arlo doesn't eat candy so it still isn't an issue for us.  He loved picking out candy from the bowls but really had no idea what he was choosing since he's never had a kit kat, skittles, or even a sucker.  We don't intentionally deprive him of these things, he's really just not interested in them yet and we certainly don't encourage it.  So when we got home we quickly swapped out the collected items for some we had ready to go - vegan gummies, fruit ropes, and fruit snacks.  Arlo didn't notice things had changed likely because he was so excited to find his favorite fruit ropes in their place.  I think he ate something like four or five packages of fruit snacks but I suppose that is what Halloween is all about, right?