I always enjoyed Halloween as a kid, but I rarely did anything more than dress-up and go trick and treating. With Ben this year - dressed as a Monkey, we marched in TWO preschool costume parades, attended a 1st birthday costume party, and attended TWO community celebrations. When we finally settled back at home, we ate pizza in the driveway, socialized with our neighbors, and passed out candy to trick or treaters (we had a TON this year - went through 1 big bag of candy and 4 small bags!). It was a really fun celebration!!
I had the opportunity to volunteer in Ben's classroom the morning of the Monday costume parade and I really enjoyed the experience. I got to meet some of Ben's Monday classmates (Will, Hunter, Milo, Piper, Brownyn...) and just had fun interacting with all of the little ones. I dressed up as a witch for the costume parade / party (complete with orange and black striped stockings) and walked with Ben through the Y. It was fun though Ben wanted to stop and have a piece of candy after he got the first one and then back in the classroom we put the candy bags up on the coat rack, but a couple kids had them on the table, so he was going around trying to swipe candy from his friends. Joel got to come up and video / photograph the parade / party and Ben got really excited when he showed up at class. ;-)
Marshall's daughter, Mary, turned 1 on Oct 28th, so for her birthday they had a party at the house - a baby costume party. I can't believe she's already 1 - this past year has gone so fast. She's standing and walking and it seems like just yesterday we were throwing Marshall's baby shower and welcoming Mary into the world. Ben had a great time running around Marshall and Mike's house and roaming the backyard (realized how much I love my fenced yard after that party!). I also enjoyed socializing with Susanna's mom and Madelyn's mom. It was a lot of fun to watch all of the babies run around in their costumes. The weather was absolutely beautiful and the food and cake were excellent. What a fun party! (and has inspired me for Ben's 2nd birthday....)We went up to Birkdale on Halloween with the intention of getting Ben's hair cut at Snip-its and then hanging out at the Halloween celebration, but Snip-its closed early due to the celebration so we put Ben in his costume and walked around Birkdale. We didn't stay long because I wanted us to get back to our Community celebration.
All of the kids in the neighborhood gathered at the clubhouse around 5:30pm for a parade around the community area and then a pizza party at the clubhouse. After the parade, we decided it would be less chaotic to order our own pizza so we walked over to the playground while we waited for our pizza. We met a 4yo little girl named Lindsey and her dad. He was a nice guy - a Charlotte native (they are rare!!) and we found out he lives around the corner from us. He made the comment that he has lived in our neighborhood for about 10yrs but didn't start really meeting any of the neighbors until his daughter was born. I feel it is very similiar for us - these "community" events give us something to do w/ Ben and the opportunity to meet our neighbors :-)
We picked up our pizza and when we got home (Ben still in costume), we decided to sit in the driveway and eat to let Ben run around and not have to deal with the dog every time we answered the door for trick or treaters. Our neighbor Brad was outside as well so we talked to him and I brought over the gift (w/ Ben) to our "new" neighbors Mike and Jessica, who just welcomed new baby Luke. I feel terrible that we haven't met them and they lived in the neighborhood for just over a year. Sadly, I refer to the neighbors next to them as "new" as well and they've probably lived in the community at least 2 1/2 years.....I plan to reach out to Mike and Jessica and invite them over for dinner....we need more mom and dad friends.....LOL
So, all in all, Ben wore his costume approximately 12 hrs....and our $20 costume held up excellently! I think we will have even more fun next year as Ben really starts to understand the celebration better.
PS Ben broke through his first 2yo molar! He is much happier now....we thought he may be teething, but it's always hard to tell w/ Ben (until he has a tooth!). I hope the next 3 come in as easily.
