Gavin LOVES Halloween... Obsessively. I put up my Halloween decorations in early September so he could enjoy them longer. He can spot a pumpkin, ghost, skeleton or a spider decoration from a mile away. The spookier the house, the better.
...He literally isn't afraid of anything. We let him watch The Nightmare Before Christmas this year (last year I thought he was too young), and he fell in love immediately. On top of his Halloween obsession, he is also a music lover and loves to sing; so the music in that movie combined with the Halloween scariness of course was a dream come true for him! He requests we watch it several times a day and always wants me to turn on the music from it in the car. Even his preschool teacher commented once "He knows almost every word to the opening song of that movie..." Whoops! I guess we can't hide the fact we watch TV at home... (hashtag "not ashamed").
Back to Halloween... At first I had a hard time figuring out what I wanted to do for costumes this year. My mom had made all of our costumes for us when we were kids because she was always disappointed with how cheap and simple the store-bought ones were back then. I, however, am not that crafty and I am lazy. So I probably won't be making too many costumes in my lifetime (although I made an amazing Toad costume from Super Mario a few years ago that was pretty amazing... I'll post a photo of that at the bottom of this post). Anyway, there was an adorable pumpkin costume I remember my little brother wearing when he was about Gavin's age and I thought it would be so cute if Gavin got to wear it this year. He and Gentry could both be pumpkins and I could be a farmer... Easy-peasy! Unfortunately, by the time I had came up with this amazing idea, it was too late for me to go all the way down to the valley and dig around in storage for this vintage pumpkin costume - not knowing exactly where it would be. (and again, did I mention how lazy I am?). So, backup plan, I looked online for pumpkin costumes for a 4-5T sized 3 year old toddler and hated everything I saw. There were really cute ones for babies though - perfect for Gentry. ...LONG story short, it finally hit me that (duh!) Gavin should be Jack from Nightmare Before Christmas!
Back to Halloween... At first I had a hard time figuring out what I wanted to do for costumes this year. My mom had made all of our costumes for us when we were kids because she was always disappointed with how cheap and simple the store-bought ones were back then. I, however, am not that crafty and I am lazy. So I probably won't be making too many costumes in my lifetime (although I made an amazing Toad costume from Super Mario a few years ago that was pretty amazing... I'll post a photo of that at the bottom of this post). Anyway, there was an adorable pumpkin costume I remember my little brother wearing when he was about Gavin's age and I thought it would be so cute if Gavin got to wear it this year. He and Gentry could both be pumpkins and I could be a farmer... Easy-peasy! Unfortunately, by the time I had came up with this amazing idea, it was too late for me to go all the way down to the valley and dig around in storage for this vintage pumpkin costume - not knowing exactly where it would be. (and again, did I mention how lazy I am?). So, backup plan, I looked online for pumpkin costumes for a 4-5T sized 3 year old toddler and hated everything I saw. There were really cute ones for babies though - perfect for Gentry. ...LONG story short, it finally hit me that (duh!) Gavin should be Jack from Nightmare Before Christmas!
He could be Jack, I could be Sally, and Gentry could be a pumpkin... Done! I shopped, I bought, I conquered... I was so excited and so was Gavin.
Then another realization came to me... I never get good photos of the kids in their costumes on Halloween night. It is so hard with all the chaos of getting everyone fed, ready, and out the door at a decent time... Plus by the time you've done all of that, the light outside sucks. So, this year I decided I would actually plan ahead and do a little photoshoot to capture some decent pictures of them in their costumes. Gavin got to wear and play in his costume an extra day, and I got to have fun taking and editing photos of my precious babies. Win-win. It also really helped that Eric's new job allows him to be home at a decent time most days so he could help me actually execute the shoot. I definitely would not have enjoyed the process much without his help! I might not have even tried. (Again, lazy).
Then another realization came to me... I never get good photos of the kids in their costumes on Halloween night. It is so hard with all the chaos of getting everyone fed, ready, and out the door at a decent time... Plus by the time you've done all of that, the light outside sucks. So, this year I decided I would actually plan ahead and do a little photoshoot to capture some decent pictures of them in their costumes. Gavin got to wear and play in his costume an extra day, and I got to have fun taking and editing photos of my precious babies. Win-win. It also really helped that Eric's new job allows him to be home at a decent time most days so he could help me actually execute the shoot. I definitely would not have enjoyed the process much without his help! I might not have even tried. (Again, lazy).
I really love how the photos turned out. I am so very happy I did an early costume photo shoot this year. I will definitely try and do this annually because it was so worth it. I might even offer to do them for my friends and their kids too - it was that much fun. I love seeing kids in their costumes, and I love taking and editing photos... So there you have it - let me know if you want in!
On Halloween night, we drove down to our old neighborhood in Gilbert to have dinner with friends and trick-or-treat. With Gavin's love for Halloween and him finally being at an age where he can truly enjoy it and knew what to do and what it was all about, etc, I wanted him to be able to have the full experience and enjoy houses that I knew would be decked-out in spooky Halloween decor. I wasn't sure if there would be anything like that up here in Payson. As far as I had heard, there weren't too many great places to go, (I have since learned that is not the case so maybe next year we'll try staying up here instead. Who knows?). I knew there was a town "Trunk or Treat", but I was told it gets really busy and that I probably wouldn't like it, and I wanted houses on Halloween night! So down to the valley we went. It was well worth it, in my opinion. Eric had to stay up north because he was on call at the hospital; so unfortunately he wasn't able to join us. That sucked. But, my brother, Garrett, was able to come down with us, and that made it fun for Gavin (and it was nice for me to not be alone!).
On Halloween night, we drove down to our old neighborhood in Gilbert to have dinner with friends and trick-or-treat. With Gavin's love for Halloween and him finally being at an age where he can truly enjoy it and knew what to do and what it was all about, etc, I wanted him to be able to have the full experience and enjoy houses that I knew would be decked-out in spooky Halloween decor. I wasn't sure if there would be anything like that up here in Payson. As far as I had heard, there weren't too many great places to go, (I have since learned that is not the case so maybe next year we'll try staying up here instead. Who knows?). I knew there was a town "Trunk or Treat", but I was told it gets really busy and that I probably wouldn't like it, and I wanted houses on Halloween night! So down to the valley we went. It was well worth it, in my opinion. Eric had to stay up north because he was on call at the hospital; so unfortunately he wasn't able to join us. That sucked. But, my brother, Garrett, was able to come down with us, and that made it fun for Gavin (and it was nice for me to not be alone!).
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Gavin had so much fun trick-or-treating! He did last year too, but this year takes the cake. He ran up to each house and squealed "Trick or Treat!" with all his might. He was always sure to say "Thank you!" and "Happy Halloween!" to everyone as well. He was so excited. At one point, as we were walking between houses and no one else was really even around us, he exclaimed happily "Happy Halloween, everybody!" and Garrett and I died laughing. It was adorable. I love how full of life and spunky my boy is. I don't want that passion and fire in him to ever die.
He always stopped to admire the decorations, of course... "Oh look at that ghost!"; "Wow! That's a skeleton!"; "That's a huge cat!"; "...What's that?". Every time he asked what something was, the song "What's This?" from Nightmare Before Christmas would pop into my head and make me chuckle.
Everyone loved his costume and his enthusiastic greeting at their house. I heard quite a few people say "You are the reason I love Halloween." - which made me smile. There were a few times where he would reach into a bowl to grab a piece of candy, and the person handing it out would declare that he could take a couple pieces, and Gavin would correct them and say "No, only ONE!" - Haha! One guy was so impressed with that, he handed me an extra piece of candy and said "He definitely earned more! I've never heard a kid turn down extra candy like that. That was awesome." It was really funny.
The whole night was perfect. We got to see old friends, the weather was great, the houses and decorations were fantastic, we went to a neighborhood that wasn't too busy or too dead, Gavin was THRILLED, and even Gentry was enjoying and fascinated with all that was going on. So much so that he didn't want to sit in his car seat in the stroller - I had to carry him the entire time so he had a better view! I am so glad I had my Tula Carrier with me, but I even had to take him out of that so he could see better. I am definitely going to get a front-facing baby carrier soon. He's just one of those babies that demands to see and be part of all the action. ...Which is fine by me!
I hope everyone else had a fun and safe Halloween this year! Now I am ready to hurry up and eat some Turkey so I can put up my Christmas decorations! I am usually a stickler about not putting up Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving; however, now that I have young kids who love the holidays, and especially because I have a son who was born on Christmas day, I am super tempted to put up my tree right now! We will see if I have the self-control to wait.... Stay tuned I guess!
He always stopped to admire the decorations, of course... "Oh look at that ghost!"; "Wow! That's a skeleton!"; "That's a huge cat!"; "...What's that?". Every time he asked what something was, the song "What's This?" from Nightmare Before Christmas would pop into my head and make me chuckle.
Everyone loved his costume and his enthusiastic greeting at their house. I heard quite a few people say "You are the reason I love Halloween." - which made me smile. There were a few times where he would reach into a bowl to grab a piece of candy, and the person handing it out would declare that he could take a couple pieces, and Gavin would correct them and say "No, only ONE!" - Haha! One guy was so impressed with that, he handed me an extra piece of candy and said "He definitely earned more! I've never heard a kid turn down extra candy like that. That was awesome." It was really funny.
The whole night was perfect. We got to see old friends, the weather was great, the houses and decorations were fantastic, we went to a neighborhood that wasn't too busy or too dead, Gavin was THRILLED, and even Gentry was enjoying and fascinated with all that was going on. So much so that he didn't want to sit in his car seat in the stroller - I had to carry him the entire time so he had a better view! I am so glad I had my Tula Carrier with me, but I even had to take him out of that so he could see better. I am definitely going to get a front-facing baby carrier soon. He's just one of those babies that demands to see and be part of all the action. ...Which is fine by me!
I hope everyone else had a fun and safe Halloween this year! Now I am ready to hurry up and eat some Turkey so I can put up my Christmas decorations! I am usually a stickler about not putting up Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving; however, now that I have young kids who love the holidays, and especially because I have a son who was born on Christmas day, I am super tempted to put up my tree right now! We will see if I have the self-control to wait.... Stay tuned I guess!
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(the “Toad” costume I made in 2014)
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