Halloween 2009

This was Braedyn's third Halloween and Chase's first. Technically, it's Chase's second, but he was too little last year to go out, so this is the first year he went trick-or-treating. To recap these past three years...

Year 1 - I spent countless hours nights searching for the perfect Halloween costume, and ended up finding Braedyn's giraffe costume on eBay for an incredibly low price.

Year 2 - I spent an hour or two looking for costumes online, and somehow rationalized that since the giraffe costume from Year 1 still fit Braedyn, then might as well use it again.

Year 3 - (on Thursday, Oct 29th) Oh Crap, Halloween is in two days, I had better try on Braedyn's dinosaur costume that was a hand-me-down from my nephew. After Braedyn tried it on, and I realized it was about 4 inches too short and a tad bit too snug, I somehow rationalized that he'd only be wearing it for an hour or two, so no big deal. And oh, that giraffe costume from past years... Chase was the lucky recipient of that costume this year.

We decided to go trick-or-treating at the mall since it worked out well last year. So with a giraffe and dinosaur in tow, we began our trick-or-treating festivities. Let's see, after about 2 whole minutes, Braedyn was trying to take his costume off and Chase was frantically trying to pull his head piece off.

So now we had a headless giraffe and a headless dinosaur after just two minutes. Exactly one minute later, Braedyn found the toy store, and that pretty much ended his trick-or-treating activities.

Chase wasn't exactly sure what the heck was going on, but since his giraffe head was off, he was quite happy and decided to just make the most of it. He began to get curious, looked in his candy bucket, and found something he thought he might like.

So Chase pulled out the lollipop and began to eat it (and no, he never did figure out that there was actual candy on the other end of this lollipop).

So while Chase was busy trying to figure out why the lollipop tasted like cardboard, Braedyn found himself another toy display, and took this opportunity to point out to Grammy all the toys on his Christmas list.

At this point, Chase started to get the hang of things and went on his merry way... carrying his own bucket and collecting all the treats.

Here's a cute picture of Braedyn checking out Chase's loot (and secretly pondering how to snatch all those lollipops when Chase isn't looking).

We were famished after finally making it to the other end of the mall (Chase's tiny feet could only go so fast). So we stopped at Chick-fil-a for dinner, and before we even sat down to eat, Braedyn was demanding that his costume be taken off. So off came the headless dinosaur and on went his regular clothes. I couldn't really complain, because I was surprised that he lasted that long in the too-snug costume. So after dinner, Chase resumed his trick-or-treating and Braedyn found other things to occupy the time.

Is it just me, or does it seem like he enjoyed this boat more than trick-or-treating? What a shocker (sense the sarcasm). After the boat ride, Braedyn got sidetracked again by the dog in the window display of Victoria Secret. After insisting on going in that store, I thought for sure he was just looking for more of the pink and white stuffed dogs.

After following him through the store, it was clearly obvious that he was checking out other things, and had no interest in finding more stuffed dogs!

While all this was going on, Chase was outside the store figuring out this lollipop thing. He finally realized there was more to it than just the cardboard stick. And boy-oh-boy, once he got a taste of the real thing, he was the happiest little giraffe ever.

After finally making it out of the mall, we had to hide the pumpkins full of candy in the trunk. Thank goodness the concept of "out of sight, out of mind" still works on the boys at this age! After we got home, I rifled through the boys' candy buckets in search of something yummy to eat. Instead, I found stickers, health fruit bars, more stickers, and more health fruit bars. Oh My Goodness, are you kidding me?!? Halloween is only once a year, where's the good stuff at?

So I guess next year I'll be forced to hunt down two new costumes for the boys since the ones from this year will no longer fit. I probably should get working on that now to ensure they have something to wear next year!