Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Everybody knows...his bright red van...?




There was a fall and a wheel mishap that almost ended trunk or treating before it started. Duct tape to the rescue! He was one perturbed delivery driver, though. Also, we are not good trunk decorators. One thing at a time. 


Turns out you only get one shot and five seconds to paint a 17 month old's face--you have to be happy with imperfection.

Halloween is so much better with kids. And not just because you get to eat their candy. I used to never decorate or anything, but this year I actually bought those fake spiderweb things. Well, I bought two and only used one, because it turns out they are extremely annoying to put anywhere. Theo and I also made some fake spiders out of styrofoam balls and pipe cleaners. This is pretty amazing considering my history. This was the first real year that Theo understood Halloween costumes enough to choose what he wanted to be, and he immediately fixated on being a pink car. Then it changed to a pink van. And then pink van with Postman Pat. Then finally after double checking during our daily Postman Pat viewing, he decided that he wanted a red van like Postman Pat. So he wanted to be Postman Pat. For most everyone who doesn't know, here's a link about the show. Theo started watching it and has seemingly never stopped. (And Netflix is taking it off next week! I don't know what we'll do.) I found a super sturdy moving box and duct-taped a van together, spray painted it and added some straps. The tap lights were a handy find from Target but made it a million times cooler. His whole outfit is stuff he already had except the hat that Jon found on one of his many lunchtime trips to the thrift store. I don't think we encountered one person who knew who he was, but everyone loved his costume anyway. I was just extremely happy that he loved being exactly what he wanted to be.

And Margot? Well, she was a cat. I didn't know how this Postman Pat costume would shape up, so I figured I would make something easy for her. Postman Pat's sidekick is a cat, after all, albeit a black and white one (I didn't feel like explaining two costumes) named Jess, although Theo will swear on his life that his name is "Chest." He is very, very (VERY) stubborn on this fact.

We had a church trunk or treat thing, which was denounced as boring by the old-timers but was still fun for us. Margot loved her plastic pumpkin bucket and dropping in a huge amount of candy. Until she found out that she could eat it and then just stuck to eating chocolate bars. We went trick or treating as a family for the first time ever on Halloween, and it was amazing. Theo's costume came in real handy from a safety standpoint, and Margot absolutely loved trotting up to the door with her pumpkin and picking out candy from strangers. Theo's "trick or treat" timing was a bit off--often saying it before the door was opened, but by the end of the night he was a pro. We were home by 7:30 and I was completely exhausted. Theo was on a candy high and didn't fall asleep until 9:00, I think.