Halloweentimes 2013

The Wife really did already post a great rundown of our Halloween activities this year, but by way of updating my own, here's a little something.

Bobo's first Halloween was great!  We (finally... since we've been talking about going every year since we were married) visited Cornbelly's, where we were blessed through the ambient music with the ever-important knowledge that pumpkins don't have bones (...), and then a few days later visited a much smaller in scale pumpkin patch nearer by.  The Boy seemed to enjoy the free one about as much as the other one (this year at least), so maybe we'll just stick to that kind of thing for a while.  Cornbelly's had its pluses (for example, the food was delicious), but it had its equal share of the ridiculous (for example, the food was mostly way too expensive... what do they think this is, Disneyland??).  I was disappointed that the touted "Duck Races" did NOT feature real ducks, and as for that "Animal Band"... let's just say that I think Lester's Possum Park has better audio-animatronics.  Eep!  Curtain those poor things up when they power down!

His favorite part of Cornbelly's was eating my hat.  Also, we only cheated a little bit to get through the maze (and still called it a victory).

The hayride was a little more entertaining than expected, and also FREE.

Other than that, he participated in a variety of activities, from carving pumpkins to wearing fun and festive Halloween costumes, which of course culminated in our epic family Halloween costumes, which were a big hit at the ward Trunk or Treat and also the party at the rec center across the street. As many times as I have dressed as a Potter, I've never been anyone other than Harry, but I'm happy to pass the torch onto my firstborn.  (Meanwhile, as many times as The Wife has dressed as someone from the HP universe [usually Hermione], she's never dressed as a Potter at all, so that was a fun change.)

We realized just a few days before this that we were basically dressing our child as an orphan, but he still has ghosty parents nearby, so it's not so bad.  The beauty in this costume was in the details for sure, like the envelope (complete with Hogwarts wax seal) and our wands and costumes.  We had to choose which iteration of J&L to go for, and we decided it was best just to go with the iconic moving photograph scene, though we also considered their death scene, and the Resurrection Stone scene... yes, we gave this a considerable amount of thought).

We rounded out the festivities by watching lots of spooky Halloweenish movies and reading lots of spooky (and not so spooky) Halloweenish books.  I always mean to get around to some of these, but this year I actually did.

I think using his hands and feet as templates for the face was genius.  Also, I shall never again carve a pumpkin without one of those kits.  Those itty-bitty knives are amazing.

Happy Halloween, Boy!  You made it more fun than ever it has been!  One day we'll take you trick-or-treating for real.

P.S. It should also be noted that our usually annual Halloween 5K at the Hale did not happen this year, for the very good reason that they decided not to have it...  Yeah, there are reasons, but they are lame, and we were annoyed.  We'll just see if we join them for their winter race in February!