Three years and counting

It began three Octobers ago when Jonas came up with a rather creative way to bring along his Halloween pumpkin. Remember this from last year?

Halloween 2010

While creative, it is bulky and sometimes bothers me when I go to pick him up and we have a large pumpkin in between us. I do my best to put my issues aside though since I know he loves it.

This year when I got out the decorations in early October, Jonas was thrilled to see his long lost pumpkin friend. Sure enough, it still fits. The funniest is when he is buckled in his car seat with it on...he can honestly not see over the top of it and it makes me laugh every time I look in my rear view mirror. Anyway, I am waiting for the year when he can no longer squeeze the handle over his head but for now, the giant pumpkin necklace lives on.

We had our share of fun Halloween activities. First off was the church Halloween party. Due to my poor planning (procrastination as Devin calls it, but I have issues with that label that I won't get into now) and our trip to Wales, I didn't give enough thought to costumes this year. I knew Nell would be a ladybird (or ladybug for the US educated), Clara would be a butterfly (although we agreed to disagree since she claimed to be a Butterfly Fairy but that didn't go with my theme, so I simply refer to her as a Butterfly and she understands) and Jonas? Well I couldn't decide. He has been talking about being a bee for weeks but I couldn't figure anything out that didn't look feminine. I thought he'd drop the idea (you'd think I would have learned after all this time) but of course he didn't. The day of the party he was telling me "First, Bee" meaning that was his first choice. He never came up with "Second,..." which would have been nice since my friend Elizabeth had offered her boy dress up clothes. So, two hours before the party I threw this yellow fabric together and painted black stripes on it (thanks to Mayka's genius suggestion) and borrowed a bee hat from my friend Sherrill. Costume complete. It would certainly win no awards but Jonas was happy, which made me happy. Although here he is looking fairly shocked that I actually pulled it off...

I then decided to dress as a black widow (pretty sure nobody got that, again...poor planning) and Devin went with a fly swatter (don't worry...thoroughly disinfected) and was supposedly dressed as an exterminator. Again, not sure anybody got it, but at least we knew. :)

Here are Clara and Jonas with their dear friends.

Our next Halloween adventure was on base. There was to be a carnival area followed by trick or treating on the base housing.

We got there with 1.5 hours before the fair shut down and trick or treat started. Clara immediately got in line for face painting.

Now would be a good time to mention how I painted her face for the church party and was quite pleased with my efforts. The day of the base party she gently asked me if it would be okay if she got her face painted there instead of having me do it. She said "Mom, I really really liked the way you painted my face and you did a good job but I think it would be fun to see how they might do it differently". Thanks for trying to spare my feelings, Clara. I got it though and who wouldn't after looking at her?

Anyway, back to the line. Clara got immediately in line and stood patiently until her turn at 7:00pm!!! She finished up, looked around at all the booths cleaning up and out we went into the freezing cold to trick or treat. Luckily she wasn't disappointed that it was all she had time for, especially since following the trick or treating in the dark we went home and washed her face to get ready for bed.

Jonas wasn't too disappointed at the long line either since he gets pretty overwhelmed in situations like that so staying in one spot looking around was right up his alley. I was able to convince him to color at a table with me and that was plenty for him.

After ridding Jonas' Halloween basket of all allergic reaction causing candies (the majority) we drove home and called it a night.

Lastly came our Halloween party the night of. Trick or treating is gaining in popularity here in the UK but not really in our little area so we stayed home and had friends over for soup, dessert and fun. It was a great night, so great in fact that I forgot to get my camera out.

We are Halloween'd out and ready to put it all away. Nell's picture says it all. Now we'll wait for next year when we find out just how big Jonas' head has gotten and if that pumpkin will still fit.