Trick-or-Treating

A note about the costumes:

We had these gorgeous costumes from China, but I wasn't sure if we should use them... I mean, what are they, Chinese guys? So, at the beginning of the month I was trying to think of costume ideas for this year. My Aunt Linda is a talented seamstress and has quite a collection of Halloween costumes. Each year I just call her up and see what she has in whatever size I need. I knew that my family would be coming up for conference, so I called her to see what she had in Ryan's size. She listed off a few things and I told her what to send. My grandparents brought two costumes for Ryan; one was an Indian and the other was Pinocchio. We also had the Chinese outfit. So, when it came time to decide I had Ryan try on all three costumes. We decided that we liked the Chinese ones the best although all three were very cute. We just thought it would be perfect to have the boys sort of "match" and dress as the same thing, since we had them and they both fit. Well, sometime between our decision (meaning Colin's and mine), Ryan had decided that he wanted- no, was going to be- a Shark! Now, where on Earth he came up with this idea, I have no clue. I just know that he had EVERYONE convinced that he was dressing as a shark. He never plays with sharks, there are no shark movies, he doesn't have shark toys, watch shark cartoons, or ANYTHING. Regardless, he told all of his friends at Preschool and the babysitters that he was being a Shark. He also let me know that he was going to be a Shark for Halloween. A shark? What?! We don't have a shark costume.

Anyway, this is when we busted out the three actual costume options and "decided" upon a costume. I didn't hear much about the shark for a while and had him pretty much convinced that he was going to be a "Chinese guy" for Halloween and match Evan. We talked about it periodically, this is what you have to do when you want to persuade a three-year-old to do something, and he would even tell me all about it. Then, about two days before his Preschool Halloween party, he decides back on the shark costume. I told him that if he didn't want to be the Chinese guy that he could be Pinocchio or an Indian. He decided on Pinocchio and was happy with that. It was very cute and I loved him dressed in that costume. Still, however, we wanted him to match Evan for Halloween so we were back on the constant talk-about-the-upcoming-event phase to try to get him to dress in what WE wanted him to wear. As the pictures prove, we won out and he wore the Chinese outfit for Halloween day!

After going up to the office to trick-or-treat, I took the boys by their grandparents house to show off their cute costumes and eat my mother's stew and corn bread-yum! Then we headed over to the Cole's house for trick-or-treating.

Evan getting ready to head out and trick-or-treat.

Ryan super excited to go trick-or-treating.

The whole crew (minus photographer) trick-or-treating. Josie wanted to push Evan, Ryan and Curen holding hands, and Tonya and I taking them around to the houses. Thanks for letting us tag along guys.

They had a great time and Ryan really got the hang of it. It did sprinkle on us a little bit and I was quite unprepared for that, no sweaters, or blankets- oops! At least I remembered to put some socks on Evan.
We were out for the perfect amount of time. Ryan got lots of candy and the boys were both in bed by their usual bedtimes leaving Mommy lots of after-bedtime-blogging time!

Whew! Fun day but I have to say I'm glad its over and I can go to bed now!

Happy Halloween everybody!

This one house was SO DECKED OUT! The boys were stoked about the skeletons riding the motorcycle.

By the end it was sprinkling and Ryan asked to wear Evan's hat so he wouldn't get his head wet!

Halloween Day

Today was a lot of fun. This year Ryan really understood what Halloween was all about and he got the concept of Trick-or-Treating for the first time. That made Halloween very enjoyable for us. Our day was pretty low-key in the morning but we did plenty in the afternoon and evening to make up for our slow start. At around 1:00 I got the boys dressed up in their "Chinese Men" costumes and took them up to Colin's work to Trick-or-Treat around the office. It is amazing to see how much the firm has grown here. I remember Ryan's first year going up to the office. He was only 2 months old and it was a very small celebration. Last year was busier and this year I could hardly get a parking spot! There are so many more people. I love taking the boys up to the office though because it is so fun to see all of the other adorable costumes. Some of the adults had quite amazing costumes this year as well. Ryan always wants to go visit dad at work because we'll do that occasionally so he was super excited when I told him that we'd get to go on Halloween day. Here are our photos from the morning and afternoon of Halloween.

Evan and Ryan dressed up in their beautiful Chinese costumes.

These costumes are authentic apparel from China.

Grandpa Bruce brought Ryan's over a while back and Aunt Brooke gave us Evans for Christmas last year when I was pregnant. How perfect that they both fit on Halloween!

This is the boys before driving up to Colin's work. Wide awake and excited to go see Daddy at work!

And this is them upon arrival, both asleep!

All four of us at Colin's work area. Ryan wouldn't take the sucker out of his mouth for the picture but oh well, it is Halloween right?

E & Me


Another family shot.



This is Colin taking the boys around the office Trick-or-Treating. He was awesome and helped Ryan say "trick or treat" and "thank you" to each of the cubicle pods.

Notice his Super-Daddy-ness in the last photo; wrangling a wiggly Evan while assisting Ryan with his candy bag.

Colin's co-worker Chen loves Evan!

Evan playing on the floor of Daddy's office.

Ryan getting an early start on candy consumption

Ryan was being "shy" when we first got there because, as you will remember, he fell asleep on the way up. He actually only fell asleep about 10 minutes away so he was a bit on the groggy side which means that the whole way to Grandma's house he was a bit on the cranky side.

Daddy and Evan

Daddy and Ryan

Mommy and Evan

Preschool Parade

Ryan's preschool class did Halloween activities this Wednesday. They got to wear their costumes to class and they made a yummy Witches' Brew treat. They decorated pumpkins and enjoyed some other Halloween festivities. Ryan was very excited to wear his costume to class and I think he thought that was Halloween its self! At the end of class they all came out and paraded around the little circle to show off their costumes. Ryan was Pinocchio (I'll explain the ever-changing costume decision later), Curen was Spider Man, Maycee was a Care Bear, Corbin was a ninja, Aidan was a Pirate and Max didn't dress up. They are so cute going to preschool. It has been a lot of fun for me to take him while I've been off track. He hops out of the car and says, "see ya Mom"! I just love that little guy and he's ever-so adorable in this awesome Pinocchio costume made by my Aunt Linda. Ryan, Curen, Maycee

Curen as Spider Man

the three buds

a candid shot of the kids after preschool

Spider Man and Pinocchio

Miss Sandy leading her class on a parade for the parents

more parading around the block

I think this is my favorite shot. Ryan was running out of preschool to say hello to me, Tonya, and Alyssa. It was super cute!

Preschool class marching around showing off their costumes.

Painting Pumpkins

This year we decided to paint our pumpkins instead of carve them. Ryan was so excited! He did a great job painting the pumpkins and we both had a lot of fun. Evan was glad to watch and he was happy with holding his pumpkin. I later painted that pumpkin with a Frankenstein face, I'll have to take a picture of it and post it later.

Pumpkin Patch

I took the boys up to the local pumpkin patch to pick out their pumpkins. It was a lot of fun and we got two cute pumpkins. We brought them home and painted them. More pictures to come!