Halloween, twenty-fifteen.

I am not sure who enjoyed Halloween more this year, Arlo or Erik and I.  This year was everything that I hoped the Halloween experience would be as parents of a little one.  Last year was fun dressing Arlo up in his fuzzy little caterpillar costume, but he was still far too young to go trick-or-treating and appreciate all the things that kids (and adults - lets be honest here) love about this time of the year.  Although he is still too young for candy (we will be riding this train as long as we can) we still took him trick-or-treating and he had so much fun.  This whole post is going to be total picture overload, so consider yourself warned.

The Halloween decorations came out way early for us this year.  My parents visited us at the beginning of  September, bringing with them boxes of Halloween decor that my Mom always put out when my sister and I were little kids.  Seeing all the pumpkins and little figurines I hadn't seen in years brought back many memories, and I am so lucky my parents hung on to everything for so long, and even luckier that they passed them along them to us.  I decided that instead of hauling everything up to the attic only to bring it back down a month later, I would just go ahead and decorate early.  I don't usually have seasonal decorations up before the stores even put them out, but this year I won.  Take that, Target.

Our neighbors also got into the Halloween spirit somewhat early.  At the beginning of October, the house two doors down put up these giant inflatable ghosts and a grim reaper in their front yard.  It became our daily ritual to stop at this house and look at all the decorations on our morning walks.  If I forgot, Arlo would point and yell "ghost! ghost!"  It didn't take me long to learn that we were stopping there everyday, no matter what.

As I mentioned in my last post, the weekend before Halloween we visited a pumpkin patch in the mountains where we took some photos and picked up some fresh apple cider and local apples.  Arlo was a bit pumpkin obsessed this year, so he was thrilled to be in a field full of them.  It was on this trip that we scored Arlo's costume at a kids consignment store, an adorable monkey suit that we couldn't resist.  Last week, I took Arlo to a Halloween-themed story time at our local library and he got to wear the costume for the first time.  All the kids and even the librarians had on Halloween costumes, and after story time everyone went trick-or-treating through the library.  At first Arlo was confused and seemed to wonder if it was okay to take random things from strangers, ha!  He didn't care at all about the candy but loved the tiny bottle of bubbles they passed out and thought the pumpkin hand stamp was pretty cool too.

That night, we kept the Halloween spirit going and carved our pumpkins.  I can't remember the last time I carved a pumpkin before this year.  It was a long time ago, that's for sure.  Even though we obviously were not going to let Arlo play with sharp carving tools, he had a blast scooping out the pumpkin guts and watching Erik and I do the carving.  I let Arlo pick out the stencil design from the book that came with the carving tools.  No surprise here, he picked the ghost.  Erik was a little more hard core with his carving process.  He printed out a stencil from online, cut it out with a razor, and then busted out the power tools to carve his Grateful Dead pumpkin.  It was worth all the extra steps, his pumpkin turned out awesome. 

When we were finished carving, I put the pumpkins in the foyer, lit candles inside them, and turned off the lights.  Arlo came running in, stopped dead in his tracks, inhaled sharply, and let out a big "wow!"  I only wish I had recorded it on video.

On Friday Erik's office hosted a trunk-or-treat in their parking lot.  Arlo decided to take a super long nap that day so we missed the outdoor activities, but we still stopped by to show off his little monkey suit.  Everyone loved having him visit, and many of Erik's coworkers found a little trinket or two from their desks to put in Arlo's pumpkin basket.  He received some very random items: pumpkin stickers, zip ties, a happy meal toy, a foam dumbbell, and a monster truck.  Someone tried to give him a full-sized candy bar and Erik quickly put the kibosh on that, ha. 

The three of us left Erik's office together and headed to a little village of shops near our house that was hosting a big trick-or-treating event.  Every store was participating and handing out candy.  We got there right when it started and it was packed!  By this point Arlo was getting pretty good at his candy collection skills and walked right up so he could get candy put in his basket.  When he got to choose his own candy, he took only one piece and always picked a pack of whoppers.  We ate dinner in the village and then headed home to rest up, for the next day was Halloween!

Last year we were living in a not-at-all trick-or-treating friendly neighborhood.  There were not many kids in our area and the houses were rather far apart.  So, in addition to enjoying their company and the fact that their daughter is one of Arlo's besties, we decided to spend Halloween with our friends in their much more kid-friendly neighborhood.  Even though this year we are now in a family-friendly neighborhood ourselves, we decided that we cared more about hanging with our friends and letting the kids play together than passing out candy at our own house, so we went over to John & Rhianna's house again.  The kids had so much fun together and I think Arlo would have trick-or-treated for hours if we had let him.  We decided to just stay on their street, and went to maybe seven or eight houses.  Arlo can say trick-or-treat ("tick teet") but in the usual toddler fashion, didn't want to perform on command.  He did say "tanks" after he was given candy though which was completely adorable.  He wasn't at all shy about going up to get candy, and he even hung around one house probably hoping to score more.  He kept looking at their candy bowl and showing them his loot, and they commented on what a social little guy he is. 

Erik and I were originally not going to dress up, but he was able to score a free "Scream" costume at a yard sale a few weeks ago, and I decided to just be a devil again - it was like my third or fourth time wearing that costume but it's the only one I had on hand.  They all worked out well though because they were warm costumes and it was a chilly evening, and hey, you can't beat free.  Arlo's little friend Lyra went as Minnie Mouse, and she was super cute as always.  Can you see the pigtails in the photo of them together?!

Now can we also just take a second to look back at last years Halloween photo?  I barely recognize these tiny babies!

And now back to present day...

group shot photo credit goes to Rhianna and her new camera!

And to address the question that I have been asked many times already, and will likely have to answer for years to come - "how do you do halloween as vegans?" 

This year was easy.  Arlo doesn't eat candy yet and doesn't even know what it is, so he just thought he was collecting "things" as we trick-or-treated, and didn't even miss them when I dumped them in the big candy bowl back at the house.  We did of course hang on to the mini jar of play-doh - he was super happy to have received that.  I was prepared in case he wasn't so easy going about giving up his treats, and had bought mini packets of organic graham crackers, fruit ropes, and a Halloween matchbox car.  However, I forgot all about those treats until we were leaving for home as there was never any need to get them out.  Arlo was more interested in snacking on the baby carrots and tortilla chips when we were done going house to house.  Next year will probably be something similar in terms of how we address the non-vegan candy situation.  I will have a bag of health(ier) treats to swap out after we make the rounds, and can hopefully do it without him noticing.  I realize as he gets older this won't be such an easy task, but I hope by that point I can explain why we eat the way we do and he will more or less understand.  And it's not all about the products being vegan, even vegan candy is often unhealthy and a really unnecessary part of a kids diet.  I get it, I get it, it's only one day of the year.  And we all ate it growing up.  So, maybe when he's much older I won't care so much about avoiding things like "hydrogented palm oil, potassium sorbate, and red 40" but right now, well, I just do.

And in case there is any worry that Arlo has been missing his favorite ghost at the neighbors house, not to fear.  The day after Halloween, the ghosts and grim reaper disappeared and were replaced by a giant inflatable turkey.

Thanksgiving twenty-fifteen, we are ready for ya.

rain all morning = sleepy turkey  ;)

Michigan 2015: part 4

Continued from part 3.

Saturday was the day of the family reunion, a traditionally lazy day that had always been spent lounging, playing cards with relatives, and when I was much younger - participating in the kids games.  Now that I have a kid of my own, a toddler at that, "lounging" was not really part of my vocabulary that day.  We didn't arrive until mid afternoon as we wanted to make sure Arlo got in a solid nap that day, but when we got there the little man was full of energy.  He was just a little too young to participate in the kids games, but still very mobile, so we took turns chasing him around and finding things for him to play with, trying to keep him disinterested from the nearby lake that surely looked appealing to him. 

Now, pictures!

all of us!  but only about 1/5th of the entire reunion.  photo credit goes to my Uncle K

the B family!  photo credit Uncle K

us, the Parental Units, and the newlyweds - Megs & Mitch.  photo credit Uncle K

us again.  photo credit Uncle K.

Here are the photos I took with our camera between chasing after Arlo and making sure he was fed snacks every 20 minutes...

After hanging out with everyone for a while, and the traditional group photos were taken (see above,) Erik, Arlo and I sneaked out to head back to downtown Alpena to eat at a restaurant (vegan options/organic options/local options!) we had discovered earlier in the week.  We finished the day walking around downtown picking up a few souviners for family, and then took a trip down to the beach.  It was a lovely way to spend the last evening in Alpena with my lil' family...

Arlo did NOT like the feeling of sand on his feet and refused to walk on it!  It was so hard not to laugh at the poor kid.

The following morning we celebrated my cousins daughters second birthday with a puppy dog tea party in my Grandma's back yard.  Afterwards, we packed up and drove back downstate to stay one last night at Erik's parents house.  The following morning we hopped on a plane back to sweet sunny NC, where Lucy was happily collected from the pet sitters house and the cats were given some much needed attention.  All in all, we couldn't have asked for a better time spent "back home" with family.  We will let The Mitten state turn cold again, and visit when the temperate weather returns next year.  I certainly can't go another four years without going back, my Meijers addiction simply won't allow it.  Thanks for everything, home sweet Michigan!

Michigan 2015: part 3

Continued from part 2.

Friday the 17th was the day of Megan's wedding, and what a lovely day it was.  The weather started out a bit rainy, but it was just enough rain to count as good luck, because by the time that the noon ceremony rolled around, the rain clouds had moved on and things dried up for the most part.  The ceremony was held right in my Grandmas beautiful backyard, and the ceremony was officiated by one of Megan's best friends. The flower boquets were put together by our Aunt Wanda, from flowers freshly picked from Grandma's garden.   Erik and Uncle Kirt played photographers during the ceremony, and then I took some candid shots of Megan and Mitch in their requested locations later in the day.  Arlo was the ring bearer, and was walked down the isle with my Mom:

I was the maid of honor, and the best man was another "Erik with a k," one of Mitch's best friends.

Here comes the bride!  Megan and Dad:

Wedding party:

Wedding party plus the parental units:

And some pictures I took later in the day, Meg and Mitch on Grandma's swing set:

Arlo and his Grandpa:

Rings:

Arlo on the teeter-totter (isn't that what you call this thing?):

My Mom and her two sisters:

Down at "Grandmas Beach":

Later on, Erik taught Arlo to ride a bike.  Pretty sure Erik had been waiting for that moment since the day Arlo was born!

And one of my favorite ever photos of my boys...  Taken in Grandma's garden:

Arlo discovering his love of freshly picked sugar snap peas from the garden:

I was so happy that we were able to be a part of Megan and Mitch's special day!  Arlo did a great job as ring bearer, and will get to play the part again in just over a month when Erik's brother gets married.  The day following the wedding was our family reunion, another event that I am going to give it's own post... But don't worry, it's the last in my Michigan 2015 blog post installment.  Ha!  Stay tuned for the fourth and final part...