A Happy Halloween

The Saturday before Halloween we carved our pumpkin.  For the last two years we haven't even bought a pumpkin; we've just used the one our realtor brings us!  : )  Our ward trunk-or-treat was that night but we didn't go.  Eli had returned from staying with his grandparents that day, and was coming down with a cold (ended up being too sick for church the following day).  Unfortunately Clara was pretty sad during pumpkin-carving time, so I missed out on participating so I could feed her.  Eli and Daddy seemed to have fun with their pumpkin, whom we fondly named Ghostie.  : )

Getting started.  Eli wasn't too sure he wanted to touch any part of the insides of the pumpkin.

Then he finally decided to help scoop.  : )  

The finished product!  No, we're not cool and did not do some nifty design.  Eli sure liked our jack-o-lantern, though, and thought it was pretty neat to watch it glow with a candle inside.

When thinking about what Eli would wear for Halloween this year, I looked up costumes online.  (I am simply in awe of you awesome mothers who make your kids' costumes, either by sewing or through your crafty skills.  I am (at least currently) not one of those moms.)   His favorite things were firetrucks and Thomas the Train (at the time).  I found both a firefighter and train conductor costume at Walmart.  Eli couldn't pick between them so I bought them both to try on.  They were pretty poor quality, but the train conductor looked better on him so that's what we kept.  Of course Eli then decided he didn't want to be a train conductor, but it was too late to return it.  

We had a few opportunities to dress up during Halloween week.  I should have tried to get Eli to wear his conductor costume right from the get-go, but regretfully I didn't.  So for dress-up day at the library he was a construction worker.  He wore a flannel shirt, overalls, his hard hat, boots, and carried his tool box.  As soon as we got to the library he handed me his hat and tools so as my mom said, he probably looked more like a farmer than a construction worker.  : )

Wednesday we were invited to come trick-or-treating at David's work.  That was very special because we had never been there before.  There were three floors that were passing out candy.  Most of the employees came out in the hall, but we also had to go into several offices.  Eli no longer wanted to be a construction worker, and the conductor costume was left in the other car, so we decided to dress up in last year's pumpkin costume.  Ha!  Eli didn't mind one bit, and was just super excited!  He looked darn cute, and unfortunately we didn't have a camera with us.  He was pretty shy and would just whisper "trick-or-treat" and then a whispered "thank you," but he had an adorable grin with tongue out the whole time.  

Trick-or-treating was delayed til Friday here in Indiana due to one very rainy and windy Halloween.  I was sure thankful, as David got home an hour late on Halloween, but early on that Friday!

Getting ready to go out.  Can't go without those trusty boots!

Eli was not the least bit afraid to go up to the doors all by himself.  He remembered well how the trick-or-treating process works, and was quite the pro!

Waving goodbye to people that gave him candy.  : )

While we were out we ran into who Eli thought was Curious George!  Eli was pretty mesmerized and just stared at the monkey for awhile.  Then he went up and gave him a high five.   : )

This crazy man joined us for trick-or-treating.  David wore a mullet and sunglasses.  : )

We didn't dress up Clara because she was screaming as we were trying to get out the door (very tired).  I just wanted her to try to sleep while we were out, and the costume would prevent her from being able to be safely buckled in her carseat.  So instead she wore festive Halloween jammies.

We stayed out about an hour and then Eli was ready to go home.  He was super excited to dump out his candy and get eating!  The next morning he asked for candy as soon as he woke up.  He went over to his bucket to get some, only to very sadly discover that none was there!  I told him I put his candy up safe in a bag.  When he gets to have a piece of candy he tells me, "Dump it out so I can see what I want!"  He loves to choose which piece he eats.

Eli's preference is to wear the hat sideways . . .

It was a fun Halloween spent with the cutest train conductor I've ever seen.  : )