Halloween 2011

Yesterday was Halloween.  This year was a lot of fun because Nathan is old enough to understand the fun of dressing up and going trick or treating.  For him it was an all-day party, starting with a parade and party at school, and wrapping up with his first ever trick or treating excursion.  He loved it!  And he was exhausted from the partying (this means a nice long nap this afternoon, which is allowing me to get caught up on blogging).

Natalie is obviously way too young to partake in the joy of Halloween candy, and she was having a pretty fussy day yesterday.  Suspecting that she wouldn't be amused by the costume, I took advantage of one of the brief windows of time during the day that she wasn't nursing to get her dressed up and photographed in her cute little chili pepper costume.  As soon as I saw this costume, I knew it was the one I wanted since we called her Pepper during my pregnancy.  Once again my obsession with perusing Craigslist paid off, since I found the exact costume that I had been looking at online for $19 plus shipping for a bargain $5 plus a 10 minute drive.  Score!  As I suspected, Pepper was not impressed by the experience of being dressed as a pepper.  She was still cute though! :)

Taking a moment to think about the green headpiece.

A clear opinion has been formed!

Thinking about whether or not she likes it more while sitting up...

NO!

I finally had mercy on her and took off the costume, but had to get a few more photos of her in her Halloween outfit from Aunt Erin.  Natalie was not amused.

Luckily I got a photo earlier in the day when she was a little happier.

Monday evening we headed over to the Winchell neighborhood for a trick or treating extravaganza with the Lepleys.  Nathan and Gavin were super excited to have a friend to go trick or treating with, and I was thrilled to get to spend some non-work time with Suz and her sweet hubby.  Bryan's sister Kathleen lives on the street that is one of the most popular stretches of trick or treating land in all of Kalamazoo.  She was kind enough to invite us over to join in on the festivities.

Here's my little Jeep, all ready to go trick or treating!  When Todd found this costume online and asked Nathan if he wanted to be a Jeep for Halloween, N's face absolutely lit up!  It was the perfect find, and I imagine will be in the regular dress-up rotation for quite some time to come.

Nathan, Suz and Gavin the WMU Broncos football player

And they're off!  No hesitation whatsoever.  These boys were all about the idea of running around and getting lots of candy (strange, I know).

There was a little patch of woods between two houses, and Nathan immediately abandoned his candy quest, exclaiming, "Ooh! Let's play in the woods!"  I guess our little Jeep wanted to do some off-roading. :)

Shortly before we left the house, Natalie fell asleep for the first time all day.  Based on her earlier reaction to the chili pepper costume, I was not about to wake her up and anger her!  That would have made the trick or treating adventure a sad one for everyone.  So instead we let her sleep peacefully in her stroller with the offensive costume nearby but not on.  At one point Natalie woke up briefly to see what all the excitement was about--I snapped a picture of her cuteness, and then she went back to sleep.  What a good baby! :)

Halloween moon.  It was a beautiful evening.

Nathan's haul!