A fun thing about being a parent of a young child is that Halloween turns into a week-long affair.
On Sunday, we went to “Henry’s Halloween”. I don’t have a picture of Henry (a little monkey) and Natalie (who refused to wear a costume other than a Minnie t-shirt), but we do have some family shots (a rarity, so thanks, Heather!)
Cheese! Okay, now can I have one of those delicious peanut butter crackers, Mom? Before Henry gets another one!
Mom, if you mix it all together, you get purple!
Then, on Tuesday, Natalie invited me to a Halloween party at preschool. Her teacher, Ms. Saba, actually got her to wear her cow costume, no hood of course.
Just because I like milk and cow poo, doesn't mean I actually want to be a cow!
With a few tables of crafts to eat, Natalie soon forgot about her cow costume. Ms. Saba’s table had little graham cracker pies, which you filled with half yogurt, half pumpkin filling. A healthy Halloween treat (much healthier than the table with 90 calorie marshmellows, frosting, M&Ms and candy corn, which was nearly impossible to drag her away from).
Then, on Halloween, Natalie surprised us by choosing the Monkey costume! She may have been influenced by the fact that the monkey had a banana in his pocket, and she and I had just made banana cupcakes.
Our neighbor Katie clued us into the hot street for trick-or-treating… not only was it great to see all the kids, but some houses passed out full-size Kit Kats and giant pixie stix. Just what an almost-2-year-old needs!
Cheese. Okay, Mom, where is the candy corn that you bribed me with to smile for this picture?
The only downside of Halloween is that someone rang our doorbell… living on the 3rd floor and being on an “unpopular” trick-or-treating street, we didn’t expect any trick-or-treaters. I asked Jordan to go down and figured that we could share a couple pieces of Nat’s candy. Unfortunately, instead of just 2 little kids (what I was expecting), Natalie’s pumpkin was ransacked by about 15 middle school kids. Whoops. Less chocolate for Mom and Dad, I suppose. Thankfully, Nana promised to bring over more of the whole grain bunny grahams that Natalie likes.
And, Natalie learned to say “trick-or-treat” and “Happy Halloween!,” so that’s the message she’s leaving you with. I am also proud that she said Thank you a lot! 🙂
Addendum: Natalie is tall enough to snatch food from the counter. I told her she couldn’t have another banana muffin. Jordan then walked in the door, so she snatched one without me knowing to “share” with Daddy (maybe because I had said he could have one). She did share with Daddy, but expected him to share a lot in return. She really is a little monkey!