This year may not have been Alton's first Halloween, but it was the first time he went trick-or-treating! To refresh your memory about what we did last year, it was dinner at home with the Lee family, much larger crowds at the front door than we were expecting, and my final vow that when Alton began trick-or-treating, he would thank people! (You might want to click over to last year's post just to refresh your memory about the cute, cute little chubby cheekers that Altie was sporting back then. Awww.)
Alton is currently very taken with anything that "goes": planes, trucks, trains, cars, boats, buses, helicopters...you name it. So besides planning to select his Halloween costume from something in this genre, I also wanted to find something for him to wear that was real clothes and comfortable; I saw too many uncomfortable 2-year-olds last year in itchy, hot zip-up polyester suits to think that Alton would keep anything like that on for very long. So when we found the train conductor outfit on sale, we felt like we hit the jackpot!
Cutest little conductor ever! The hat definitely makes the outfit. We had a busy Halloween weekend planned: family party in the afternoon at Andy's work on Friday, party for the toddler playgroup on Saturday morning, and then Halloween night--whoo! The Genentech fete would be our inaugural wearing of the costume, so we got everything together the night before. With Alton set as the train conductor, we decided that Andy could also don overalls and bandanna to be the train brakeman, and I would be a passenger, but with a 1940s twist. I hit a small snag in the matter of Alton's hat. Although his costume included a hat along the train conductor theme, Alton felt that it would be more comfortable to wear one of his old summer baseball caps, which is navy blue and has a picture of a boat on it. When he spots this hat, he alternately shouts, "Hat! Boat!" in excitement. I went to get his train conductor hat from the closet, but he saw the boat hat and grabbed it, thrusting it defiantly on his head and shaking his dome from side to side when I proffered the costume hat.
I grabbed both hats and got us to the party, then did a very skillful bait-and-switch with Alton so that he would think the boat hat was on his head, but really I put the train hat on. It worked...he kept the train hat on for awhile before he took it off, but by the end he was so used to it that he wore it almost all day Saturday. Success!
The work party was fun, but most of the activities were geared for older kids, so after Alton had made some rounds in his costume we headed home to rest up for Halloween--the big day.
We were a whirlwind of activity on Saturday morning getting ready for our playgroup Halloween party. Food was pot-luck, but with a dozen kids and their parents expected, we needed to do some furniture shifting in order to make room for everyone. We did a little decorating and Andy had spent some time creating a pumpkin-shaped beanbag toss game, too! He thoughtfully took some pictures before everyone arrived so that you could see the before (Sheets covering couches look spooky AND prevent frosting smears!)
...and after! (Katie in the 1940s cap is at stage left. I put on a black dress, pearls, and gloves, but knew that my outfit would be much more authentic if I had a hat on. I found a website online with pictures of vintage accessory sewing patterns, found some fabric and trimming that I already had, "winged it" on a hat design in imitation of one of the pictures, and voila! It felt very What Would Louise Do.)
Alton thoughtfully demonstrates the beanbag toss that Andy created.
Alton, *J and *E contemplate the beanbags in the bucket.
Buzz Lightyear to the rescue!
The party was a hit and everyone had a great time showing off their costumes and "practicing" their Trick-or-Treating skills by going up to me and saying their piece for a piece of candy.
After nap, it was on to the Groeners, where in addition to hanging out with our Pacific Northwest cousins, we got a chance to see Auntie Kay and Gina, who were visiting for the weekend! We got all caught up, admired Matt's portrait of Abraham Lincoln done in pennies (3,111 of them, to be exact)...
...and changed Alton into his Halloween costume for a photo session with Matt's camera before heading out to the Lee's house.
Chris and Elizabeth and their family live about 30 min away from us in a city called Newberg, a community with some more rural neighborhoods than Hillsboro, including the street on which they live. The Lees had our trick-or-treating territory all picked out: a cul-de-sac across the street from them with half a dozen large, affluent-looking homes that were reputed to hand out full-size candy bars! We convened first at their house for the two recruits to eat their dinner (here's Alton cooking it, below)...
...and to make sure that their Baby *F was primed and ready for maximum cuteness--done!
(Hey, if people offered him candy, we weren't going to refuse.)
We set off down the road at sunset with kids in tow and Andy snapping away with his camera. Alton the Conductor led the way, followed by *B the chunky monkey!
The first house we passed had a goat pen on their property facing the road, with some vocal billies telling us just what they thought about us trespassing on their land. Here you see Alton's reaction:
Adorably, Alton and *B insisted on holding hands for most of our excursion, which was darling despite the fact that it made walking awkward for Elizabeth and me!
We arrived at our first house, with our two little be-costumed revelers looking expectantly, if somewhat puzzledly, at the door.
The nice lady gives us candy, and...
...and what?! Back up a second. We knocked on her door, gawped up at her with our sweet round little faces, and she gives us candy? For that? Yessss!!! Better pull it out of the bag before she realizes what she's done and takes it back.
And of course, we did tell Alton to say "thank you" at every house he visited. Despite the fact that he was still stunned at the whole concept of walking around in the dark, knocking on strange people's doors, and receiving colorful foil-wrapped items in his pumpkin bag, he was able to pull himself together and tell each homeowner "thank you"! We proceeded on to the next handful of houses on the block (Noting for future years' reference that one of the big houses does a haunted house! Complete with skeletons, eerie lights, and the teenage daughters of the house traipsing ghoulishly around the grounds [yes, the grounds] dressed as brides of death.) and found that indeed, everyone was giving out full-size candy bars. I tried to subtly encourage Alton toward the peanut M&Ms instead of the Skittles, but he was of his own mind when it came to selecting his bounty. He became so blasé that by the last house we went to, he tried to pilfer two Heath bars while the woman was engaged in conversation with Elizabeth and me. What a charmer.
We headed back to the Lee's house before it got too late, where the kids played with *B's toys while the adults ate pizza and pored over the candy haul. We got exactly two trick-or-treaters: a pair of seventeen-year-old boys who might not have been dressed up. We weren't sure. The train conductor saw the babydolls safely home, and then donned his jammies for the warm, dark car ride home.
Knowing that a neighborhood like ours could expect trick-or-treaters numbering in the hundreds, we thoughtfully had put Minerva upstairs in our bedroom so that she didn't get agitated by persistent knockers on our front door, turned out all the lights, and for good vibes' sake placed a Gladware container full of Tootsie Roll Midgees on our doormat before we left. The Tootsie Rolls were all gone when we got home, of course, but my earlier impression of the callousness of costumed kids softened when I saw that the Gladware container was still there on the porch, and not embedded in our newel post under some smashed rotten eggs and a carved oath of "Midgees?!?!" Who knows, maybe next year we'll even hang around for the little doorbell ringers. But for this year, we had a fun time, a warm and comfy costume, a worthy hoard of goodies, and great friends. What could be better? Happy Halloween!
1 comment:
I can't decide which picture I like the best! They're all amazing! Andy needs a second job as a photographer!
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