I'm not always one to be into dressing up for Halloween. Largely because I have such a hard time committing to a costume idea. Also because I'm cheap and don't want to shell out much money for something that potentially could just be worn once. So I look at ideas and think about how I could do something relatively simply and cheap. After so many days of this it's suddenly almost Halloween. When it was just Will and I, we more often than not didn't dress up at all. Now with Andrew I feel like it's somewhere in the parental contract to dress your kid up. Really, though, what kind of parent would I be if we didn't??! Will feels like we're totally off the hook for ourselves now, but I'm not against dressing up if I have a good plan : ) Anyway, this year I was also having to keep in mind our temporary status - no sewing machine, limited other resources (like a glue gun), etc. I spent way too much time looking at ideas. I was fairly determined to not just pick a 100% premade something to buy either. If I was ok with that it would have been pretty easy. We went from lion to shark to firefighter and that's where we settled. While I was still determining this more than a week before Halloween, it became evident that I was going to need to order some things online, so suddenly it felt very last minute because we didn't have much wiggle room. I was going to buy Andrew a hooded zip up sweatshirt and pants that he could re-wear (that way it didn't feel like just a one time costume wear). Not readily available in the brick and mortar stores, I finally found a black hooded zip up to order through Target. I would have thought it would be easier to find one, but I really was lucky to find one among a number of sites. Even then I settled for one with "ears." I figured if something went wrong he could go as a bear. (It's actually really cute!) I was able to go buy the black pants in the store. I also ordered a plastic firefighter hat online to be sent to Walmart for pickup. I could have paid more for a "nicer" one, but remember I was trying to not spend a whole lot. I could have also gotten a better deal per hat if I wanted lots from Oriental Trading, but I only really wanted one, so Walmart it was. I also got yellow tape at Target. I taped on "reflective" lines onto the jacket and pants and we paired it with the hat, that of course he wasn't really interested in wearing. I thought it turned out pretty cute! People could tell what he was, he felt like he was just in regular clothes (hat aside), and I felt satisfied that I "put it together."
Still bent on trying to save a buck (a curse??!) I was going to check at a dollar store for a cheap plastic firefighter hat on our way north to the church. I found that there was one right by Walmart where we needed to stop for the hat anyway. Well, Dollar Magic was an interesting store. Tons of inventory, yes - everywhere... We looked around for a couple minutes and that was enough. With my 20/20 hindsight we wouldn't have taken the time. Oh well. I also forgot to be totally honest with myself regarding how long it would take for them to get our site to store order (the hat).... We quickly got a couple Halloween dinner items that I figured would be cheaper there than Target that also wouldn't require refrigeration and could just sit in the car while we were at the church. I also wasted some time looking for plastic spiders (rings or not) that I hoped to have for our dinner. Not that important, but I was hoping to find them. Well, it was October 30, so clearly it's time to be packing up all things Halloween and starting to set out Christmas. So that was an easy way to waste some time, too. At the time, though, I saw that customer service was right next to the seasonal section. We went to the counter and they said we'd have to go out to the garden center. For my site to store order? Yes.... So we hurried down there to the wintertime layaway center. We didn't have to wait too long for our turn, but there seemed to be complication left and right with finding our order. Now, in general, I get annoyed with people badmouthing Walmart and their patrons. It's not ok to pick on people unless it's Walmart? Drives me crazy. I'm not saying they don't have their weaknesses, like the rest of us... that being said, I may still be hypocritical here... sorry..... So on this evening as I'm looking at the time and it's taking forever and a day and seeing that not only will we not be able to arrive a little early like they requested, but we'll be late. The guy working on the order mentioned some issue and said with a grin, "That's Walmart for you!" Internally I raised my eyebrows. Then I shouted at him (in my head), "YOU are Walmart!" He regained some approval when he told me he would ring up my other purchases there (though he wasn't supposed to) because it would be faster for me. We're talking 4-5 items. It took forever..... and then the last thing was the bananas. Andrew loves them and we'd been out for a few days. He said the scale suddenly wasn't working. Maybe he didn't know the code? He walked around the area looking for someone to ask for help. Finally after a phone call he said that someone was going to come. When??? I didn't mean to be rude but I asked if they were coming right then. He said they always say that but usually don't. I ask if I should take the stuff back inside to buy, but really not wanting to. He said I could pay for everything else then buy the bananas inside..... So then I tell him we'll leave the bananas and just buy everything else. Then we rush out and Andrew thinks it's hilarious and awesome that his mom is running across the front of Walmart from one far side to the other pushing the cart telling him we're going "so fast!" ("wooohoooo!!" : ) It was dark... Though I probably would have still run and delighted him in the light : ) By this time it's a little after 6:30, when the activity was set to start. It took nearly 20 minutes to get to the church from there with the traffic, but of course there were others arriving with us and after us and we really hadn't missed much of anything.
The party was fun. Since we're so new it was hard to know with some of the people who was really in the ward and who was a friend there with a friend. There was a puppet show for the kids that we couldn't really hear, then lots of activities to go around to. Andrew found some playground balls and that was all he needed. We did take him around to some different booths. He threw a sticky bug at a target and pinned a nose on a jack-o-lantern. I colored part of a picture on his behalf. Of course the cupcake decorating table was pretty much always crowded as was the donut on a string, so we let others do those. Will bobbed for an apple, then Andrew ate the entire thing (and it wasn't small!) over the course of the evening. He ate the apple and chased the balls while we sat on the floor and watched people wrap each other up in toilet paper.
Pinning the nose on the jack-o-lantern.
Will got it with no hands! But he did admit that the shallow bowl made it pretty easy.
Then we went down to the "parking garage" for the trunk or treat. I bought a pack of white paper lunch sacks and a pack of crayons at Target to make our decorations. Someone commented that they were pretty good for having limited resources right now. I didn't tell her that that was probably about what they would have looked like even if I wasn't so limited... : ) ha I was proud to tell her, though, that my decoration ideas all came from my head, NOT pinterest. And that, my friends, is what I'd call a success! Will and I took turns taking Andrew to different cars and collecting candy in his hat. If he sees it, he's interested and wants you to share. Otherwise he isn't big enough to ask for candy yet. Or to ask if we've eaten his stash.... : )
I took a picture of these at home after I'd colored the faces. Good thing, too, because they spun around in the trunk spending most of their time backwards... ugh. And I hadn't thought to draw on both sides! Next time... And sorry, this is actually my last picture/caption as I'm adding them and going back over things. At this point I'm going to make you just turn your head to see them right side up because I don't want to fiddle with figuring out how far back in the process I need to go to turn it.... Never mind. It was going to bother me and the good news is it was easy : ) Now it's easier to see, too, that I accidentally broke my black crayon... so annoying!
Saturday morning (October 31) we drove up to a "pumpkin patch" in Mahwah. It kind of bothers me when they put a bunch of picked pumpkins in a field, and it's not the actual patch, but oh well. Is that weird? BUT, they had sanded down all the stem "handles" for maximum safety and comfort in picking and carrying pumpkins, and that was nice. From Jersey City it took about an hour to get up there, but we went on new roads so it was all very interesting. PLUS the trees are all super pretty with all the different colored leaves! It's so refreshing to be somewhere where there's more than 1.5 seasons. The pumpkin patch had lots of neat and cute things. Interesting squash to see, cut outs for pictures, hay and corn mazes, a corn box with tractors and dump trucks, farm fresh produce to buy, hayride, fun decorations, etc. Andrew wanted an apple as soon as he saw them so we let him "pick" one out. We got that and some apple cider donuts to enjoy. mmmm : ) Once again, with his apple, life was good.
Someone offered to take our picture here - how nice!
Sharing apple cider donut bites!
We thought the apple cut out was a good choice for our apple lover.
That face is making his car/truck/bus/and apparently tractor vehicle noise.
He loved the corn box! The dried kernels had the same coloration as candy corn... must be why those colors? I had never even considered that that was based on a real thing. They were really pretty to see so many in one spot. We found the kernels here and there for almost the rest of the day. We also had to keep them out of his mouth - he's mostly figured out what's not food, but this looked like food! There was a nice family next to us there and the grandma kept making a small outcry every time he tried or succeeded. Her son/daughter/in-law? kept getting after her like they were embarrassed. It was kind of funny and I know she was just trying to help so I wasn't worried about it. They were very nice and we talked with them for a bit.
I thought those long twisty squash were neat. They had several interesting varieties of squash, pumpkins, etc to see.
He was so excited to see the pumpkins he was trying to pick them up! He's loved to see and "pet" pumpkins that we've been seeing around lately. He calls them something like "bup" and apples are usually close to "bap." He can see them in pictures (books, grocery store, etc) and he gets excited. We really love the book Apple Farmer Annie and I'm so glad it's one of the handful we packed along to have with us while in temporary housing!
Mom! I'm at a pumpkin patch!
Family selfie! of sorts...
A nice teenage girl offered to take our picture! We made sure to get their family, too.
Riding back on the hayride with Dad!
They had some giant decorations made with hay bales. This skeleton was cool. They had painted different sized sticks and logs to make the body. Not pictured are the minion and Olaf : ) (I just had to draw the line somewhere on what to put on the blog! I do have them if you really want (need?) to see them. They were two bales stacked and then just painted to look like them.
We thought this skeleton going in for a slam dunk was funny and clever!
This was my favorite hay bale decoration!
There was no real reason we had Will's cut out picture in this one. I do think it's fun/funny, though : ) Probably because of the funny face he's making. Those are the pumpkins we chose to take home with us. Probably since it was Halloween and the "end" of the season for them you could take one from the hayride patch home for free - 1 for each person. So of course we needed three to bring home to be able to play with under the coffee table.
After exploring and enjoying that place we crossed the street to a park by some ball fields. We played at the park for a little bit and enjoyed the scenery as there was a nice pond and lots of trees right by it.
SO COOL!!! A car he can drive himself! vrrrroooom!
K, but seriously, guys, look at that scenery! Being there with my little family was like one giant peaceful sigh. Real life! I didn't have to pinch myself : )
Fun times on the swings, including underdogs!
Then we went to a new friend's first birthday party! We played with toys, ate food, and played at a park near their house. We met some of their medical school friends who also just moved to the area as well as got to know some others in the ward... who also have moved in in the last little while. In CA it was easy to find people with tech related jobs. Out here it's a lot harder. Especially among the "young family" set in our ward. Most of them are here for residencies, internships, etc - medical things. So it's interesting to hear them all talk about those sorts of things with each other!
That evening we had our Halloween dinner! We didn't feel like we needed to take Andrew trick or treating around the building, so it was just family stuff then, which was nice. I wasn't able to print out a menu this year, but made sure to tell Will what all the stuff was called anyway. : ) We ate it off of those cute partitioned Halloween plates/school lunch trays I found in the Target dollar section. (And I told myself I wouldn't be buying new Halloween decorations/stuff this year as we're in temporary housing! ha!)
Andrew likes "monster brains" and "monster eyeballs!"
There was also "mummy toast" and "healthy candy corn"
I guess we don't have any pictures of the "pumpkin juice," which did have a small amount of pumpkin in it! (The rest was carrot mango.)
Some of the mummies had mouths! Honestly, I think they looked a little cooler before going into the oven. Also, if I weren't so stingy there would have been more/larger cheese pieces to give it a better mummy look.
Dessert: Spider Eggs - with little spiders... : ) mmmm
Another good Halloween in the books! And in my tummy.... : )
