Trick or Treat

All Hallow's Eve was really more of a All Hallow's week for us. There was a pumpkin carving contest at work and Dan and I plotted our entry on Monday and then carved and decorated on Tuesday. We went with Monster Mash as our inspiration and created a Pumpkinstein and the Mummy as pictured below.



We had a costume contest at work on Thursday. A few of the girls dressed up as swine flu. It was probably horribly inappropriate and insensitive but we got a laugh out of it. Not many people guessed what we were on first glance but everyone in the Allied Health and Nursing Programs did. They seemed to get a kick out of it. I have since discarded my pig nose. For the record, I don't know how anyone wears those respirator masks. I just about had an anxiety attack from the claustrophobic nature of it. Yet another good reason I am not in the medical field.

Thursday evening we went trick or treating with my friend Kristi and her girls, Sam and Chloe. The kids had so much fun!



Sam was a Brownie and she made her own badges. Chloe was a tree and Kristi made this wonderful costume with the help of her friend, the glue gun. I love the bird on Chloe's shoulder! Sam and Chloe christened Max "Little Darth Vader".



We were totally late getting to Smithsburg. Kristi sent me a text but I thought she canceled. Then she called at 6 when we were supposed to be there and asked if we were close. Uh oh. Max and I jumped in the car and headed out. The girls made the rounds around downtown Smithsburg before we got there but they were happy to go around again with Max once we'd arrived. The had so much fun with Max. They were very protective making sure that he didn't get bumped by other kids or wander into the street. They carried his pumpkin bucket since he thought it was too heavy.

There was a limited trunk or treat at one of the church's and Max got to trick or treat from Tigger. He thought this was so great! He still talks about it and seemed to think that he'd see Tigger every time he trick or treated. When we went trick or treating again on Halloween, he kept saying, "TrickTreat Tigger" at just about every house we went to.



Our little Darth Vader and his totally whack light saber. I forgot to get him a light saber until that night and when I went to the dollar store, this was the only one I could find that wasn't in two pieces. It was wedged in between a couple of gift bags and the saber was barely connected to the handle by a thin wire. In the spirit of Halloween's past I bought some glow sticks and a roll of packaging tape to reinforce the jacked prop. It worked and Max loved his light saber.



Sweetness.



Max's school had a pajama party on Friday instead of a costume party and you can see Max's very Halloweenie outfit. His skeleton arms didn't make it all day but they were awfully cute. And he is very attached to them. When I picked him up from school he kept saying, "My skeleton arms!"



He thought Pumpkinstein was pretty cool. He kept stroking his hair and saying, "Gentle." Then he wanted to kiss and hug the pumpkin as you can see in the bottom photo. He's hilarious.



Finally, it was Halloween itself! Max was pretty into the dress up thing by now and that was nice. I didn't have to convince him to put on his costume. However, I did have to go out and buy him a costume alternative to the fleece Darth Vader costume. We had a birthday party to go to on Saturday afternoon and I knew it would be way too hot for him to wear Vader. He would have burst into flames! I had to come up with a new costume and fast! Of course, it was totally last minute and the only stuff I could find were things he wouldn't wear. Finally, I found a costume that would work but I found totally offensive. It was an "Indian" costume complete with headband and feather. I decided to discard these, slap some tevas on the boy and say he was Grizzly Adams. It works, mostly.



Max had a great time at the party. The weather was beautiful so we got to play outside and inside. Cat, our hostess, dressed up as a Hogwarts Student. Can you guess which house?



Despite the fact that I never dress up for Halloween I decided to get a costume and get in the spirit because the invitation said, "Wear your costume". Apparently, that was just intended for the kids because I was the only adult dressed up besides the hostess. It was fun to do and Max loved the make up. He points at the picture and says, "Mama" so he seemed to get into it.



Here's another of Max and also one of the kids dressed up. All the girls were princesses and fairies. The highlight of the party for Max was watching a dumptruck dump a load of dirt on the neighbor's yard. He was mesmerized for about 40 minutes.




We rushed home after the party and had pancakes and waffles with Sam and Chloe before heading out for trick or treating in our neighborhood. Here they are with our straw people in front of our house. Once we got home they were so sugared up and giggly. They went crazy with Dan's zombie mask and each of them took a turn wearing it. I probably had the most face time as the zombie but I think this picture of the brownie zombie is pretty hilarious!



Even Hoover had a costume. Meet Elvis Herselves, the canine King. Cute, isn't she?