HALLOWEEN 2011!!!!

Jakey as Gilligan!

Jake was able to wear his costume for the first time last Tuesday at his toddler class. He loves wearing hats, and the shirt and pants were regular clothes, but the "life preserver" I made out of paper plates took some getting used to :) I took it off once he started playing in class, because otherwise it would have been thrashed! He loves our weekly class, and his favorite part is snack time where he gets crackers and juice! Juice is a special treat for him so he loves it!

my artichoke dip display for MNO



hanging with bat girl at MNO

  Thursday night was my MNO (moms night out) party which was held at our scary house. We had a great turnout with almost 30 moms! It was such a fun night! About half of the moms dressed up, and I had a lot of fun playing hostess as a witch. They all loved our creepy decor and it was a great way to test out all of our lighting, fog machines, etc. before Halloween.

ready for trunk or treat!

our scary trunk!

taking inventory of all his candy

look what I got!

hangin' with Dylan and Kyra

group shot of the mommies and kiddos from our Wednesday playgroup

chocolate face

On Friday afternoon/evening we took Jake to "trunk or treat" (an event put on by MOMS Club) so he could practice his trick-or-treating skills before Halloween! Jake was Gilligan and so Joe and I dressed to go along with this theme as well. He was the Professor and I was Mary Ann. Jake had such a good time going to each trunk and getting candy that he would say "next one!" every time because he wanted more and more and more :) And he kept saying "open" because he wanted to open all the candy. After he was done "trunk or treating" I let him choose one piece of candy to eat and he chose a sucker. After a few minutes he bit into it and it broke, so he freaked out! I decided to let him have some chocolate covered raisins to replace the sucker. He liked them so much that he tried to eat the ones that he had spilled on the ground! After that, I said no more candy. And then, they wanted to take group pictures. Jake does not sit still for much, and pictures do not make that list. So he got yet another piece of candy....a mini crunch bar. This kept him still and quiet for the pictures, but he held the crunch bar and licked it instead of taking bites. This resulted in chocolate mouth and chocolate hands...and way too much sugar for a 2 year old. But, Halloween only comes once a year and he hardly ever gets to eat candy so I'm glad he got to experience his first sugar rush :)

Oh Lucy!

Saturday night Joe and I went to an adult Halloween party and we had so much fun dressing up as Lucy and Ricky! The wig I tried on didn't look right so I decided to spray my hair red for the night and it turned out great! And Joe found out that his drum doubled as a pretty awesome drink holder :)

our graveyard

our creepy zombie popping out of the coffin

let's get this trick or treating started!

family shot before trick or treating

our carved pumpkins

chatting with my friend Jennifer and her son (Jake's buddy) Luke

this is what I wore to hand out candy :)

hangin' with his buddy Lukas who came over to check out the scary house

Halloween night was so much fun! Jake had a great time trick or treating - we went to maybe 10 or 12 houses and then came home to hand out candy! Jake kept saying "next house!" and "open" every time he got a piece of candy. He said "trick or treat" at every house and said "thank you" at most of the houses too. It was so much more fun this year because he was able to walk and talk! Once we got home we let him choose one piece of candy to eat and he chose another sucker - his fave! This time he didn't bite it and was able to eat almost the whole thing. And yes, we brushed his teeth very well that night :) I spent the next few hours scaring kids and handing out candy. A few kids even thought I was a scary prop! We had a few visits from some friends and their kids and luckily, their little ones were not too scared of the house. We had so many trick or treaters this year that we almost ran out of candy. We did run out of the full size candy bars, and had to switch to the smaller size candy! The trick or treaters loved our spooky house and the best line of the night was when one of the kids said "haunted houses give out the best candy!" All in all, it was a scary and fun Halloween, just the way I like it! Jakey had a great time and so did we. Can't wait for next year!!!