Simply Living with Sprouts and Paws: Halloween!!!

Happy Halloween!!!

We had a great Halloween, started the day with bat shaped pancakes!!

I took the boys to a local town for a "safe treat" trick or treating downtown in the afternoon. It was fun, but the shops were pretty far apart so it was a lot of walking for a small amount of treats, but it was still fun and the boys got a practice run before trick or treating at the houses with daddy. Zander enjoyed it but tripped on his costume a couple of times, he got right back up and kept going, I think the candy was a great incentive to this.

We lucked out and didn't get rained on too badly. Came home had a quick dinner and loaded back up to walk the neighborhood as soon as Paul got home. It was already dark so I wasn't sure how Zander was going to do trick or treating, especially with all the other big kids dressed up in costumes that he didn't understand.

We have never focused any attention on scary things with the kids. I don't find it necessary to teach them to be afraid of something, so much of something being scary is learned, not how they actually perceive it. We don't ever say things like " oh dont look, that is scary" , or jump out from behind something and frighten them. It was this evening that I realized what we have been doing (or not doing) was working.

One of the first houses we came to was all decorated and had live actors. It was pretty impressive, some great costumes that were pretty scary looking in my opinion, but Zander had no reaction to them just looked at them and kept walking. This same house had their bowl of candy attached to a large crate at the front door. I applaud the lady who was running the house because she warned Zander to be careful because there was a bear in the crate. We walked up to the crate to get his candy and the whole box started to shake and shake hard. Zander just looked at it and said, "mommy, is that the bear?" I told him yes and that the bear wanted to get out and go back to the woods where he came from. He just replied with "oh, ok" and we continued on to the next house.( Now for those who don't know Zander first hand, he is not a brave child. He is pretty reserved and is a HUGE observer. So in my opinion, if being scared came just naturally he would be one of those children who would scare pretty easily.) As we were walking away I could hear another little child start screaming and crying as a reaction to this bear in the crate, I felt pretty sad for them.

Moving on he kept knocking on doors but just whispering "trick or treat" and holding up his bucket. Everyone thought he was super cute and he got a few handfuls of candy for his cuteness. As we were walking, Zander kept looking at all the other kids passing and he would say things like " mommy that costume is silly" or " Mommy what was that?" He was so curious on what everyone was dressed up as.

One of the last houses we came to the guy answered the door with a ware-wolf mask on, to my delight Zander had no reaction, said his trick or treat, took his candy and off we went. I was very, very happy to see that the time we have spent not focusing on scary things is really paying off.

We did a few more houses then Zander said he was tired and wanted to go home. So we loaded him back up into the stroller and walked back home.

Where were Drezden and Syler the whole time you ask? In the stroller, Drezden was NOT interested in trick or treating at all and Syler was sleeping. But Zander would share his candy with Drezden whenever someone gave him more then one piece. He is very good at sharing and was so excited when he was able to give Drezden a couple of pieces.

The boys zonked out on the way home and slept great. :)

Sorry I did not get any pictures of the actual trick or treating. With the threat of rain the whole time, I didn't want to have my camera out. It is time for a camera that fits in my pocket for occasions like this.

Anyway on to what you all want, costume pictures. Enjoy!