Halloween evening was our fourth time dressing up to celebrate what we consider to be a holiday about celebrating imagination, creativity, community, a little bit of spookiness and time with family and friends. Sebastian got to wear most of his costume to school all day and had a party in his classroom while Ruby and I had a slow morning before deciding to hit up the Penny Arcade in nearby Manitou for some cheap fun.
I was feeling worn down and tired and very un-motivated to figure out a costume for myself all morning so I had half-decided not to dress up at all this year. We made a stop in at Hobby Lobby before picking S up from school because we needed blue fabric for his mask and arm and leg bands when I walked past the floral aisle and got some of that enthusiasm back.
We went home to change into our costumes, picked Sebastian up, and headed straight to a Safe Halloween event going on in Old Colorado City. I'd heard about it from another mama on Instagram and was so glad we fit it in. There were so many families dressed up and parading down the sidewalks getting candy from vendors and one little parking lot had a ton of carnival games and a cake walk. Sebastian saw a guy dressed up like Captain Jack Sparrow (to the nines) and kept staring at him (from three feet away). Finally he told the guy that he had the Lego Pirates of the Caribbean video game on his computer. The guy was there advertising water filters and, from his response, not really familiar with lego video games. Either way, I imagine Sebastian had one of those moments like the first time you see Mickey or Cinderella at Disneyland.
We bumped into the gal that told me about the festival and met her sweet family and stayed for over an hour before picking up dinner and heading to trick-or-treat with our neighbor friends. Ruby fell asleep before we got there and stayed asleep for about thirty minutes of trick-or-treating before perking up with plenty of time to fill her bucket.
We tried getting a group photo of all of the kids but they were too excited to stand still for long. We had another baby duck and an elf toddler in our Halloween gang. Trick-or-treating will forever be more fun when you do it with your friends! We sure missed getting to share it with our Springfield friends in Rountree but were so glad we got to join in on some new fun with new friends!
The weather was unusually gorgeous for this time of year in Colorado according to most. It was below freezing a few nights ago so we were so thankful for the beautiful sunset and mild temps.
One house started passing out dollar bills after they ran out of candy later in the evening, one house had all kinds of contraptions floating down from the second story to scare the kids, and we ran into a gang of high school zombies that got especially in character to scare Sebastian. He was pretty brave and told them if they did that again he'd punch them in the face (manners, son) but he woke up twice in the night with bad dreams about zombies. I'm telling you, I was a little creeped out myself seeing them limp down the sidewalk toward us!
I had one person tell me I looked like a wife of one of the characters in Lord of the Rings with my woodsy ensemble. I was aiming for something fall-ish or woodsy but when I took this picture in the bathroom at Panera (my photographer is away for two more weeks so this is as good as it gets) I realized I was going as the Portlandia short 'Put a Bird On It'. Ha!
We had such a fun Halloween and I'm so glad the kids were able to enjoy it even with their Daddy missing it this year. Now it's time to get serious about preparing for Christmas! Another park mama told me about a place in Woodland Park (in the mountains) where we can get a permit to cut our own Christmas tree! In the snow! With hot chocolate and a sleigh! We've promised Sebastian his own real Christmas tree to decorate this year because he's pointed out that he's not a fan of the fake one. This year he's getting a small one all to himself to keep on the front porch. I'm excited for it myself! After having picked up a vintage aluminum tree a few weeks ago that'll make our tree count at four this year!
Okay, enough premature Christmas decor talk. I'll try to give Thanksgiving a little attention soon.
I hope you and your family had a lovely time this week. Happy All Saint's Day!
-Rachel
