Happy Halloween!

Yesterday was Luke's third Halloween. Luke's first Halloween, Brian was deployed. Our FRG got together at our house to take pictures and hang out before trick or treating started. Luke was still crawling, was dressed as a "hunny" pot and was annoyed with the huge hood flopping over his eyes. We didn't go trick or treating because, well, 11 month old babies don't need candy but we did enjoy seeing everyone in costume. Luke's second Halloween, Brian had just returned from Iraq 13 days earlier. Halloween ended up being a rainy day but in the days leading up to Halloween we took Luke to a pumpkin farm, carved pumpkins and decorated the house. On Halloween, we threw Luke's honey pot costume back on him (which barely fit this time around), and Brian braved the rain and took him around the neighborhood. At first Luke was terrified, petrified and wanted nothing to do with it. By the time they hit the 8th house or so, he was holding up his little plastic pumpkin for some treats. He went to about 15 houses that year and had fun sampling the candy. This year we are in Germany and have had a lot of neighborhood and troop activities that were in the spirit of Halloween. We had a costume Hail and Farewell, a costume birthday party, and a neighborhood full of kiddos that were ready to trick or treat all night long. Earlier in the day, Luke and I carved a pumpkin and around 5pm, we got Luke dressed up. Luke was a slick 50s guy and his little friend, Lilly, was a 50s girl in a poodle skirt. Not that they were in the vicinity of each other for more than 30 seconds, but it was still a cute idea. :) Night fall was around 5:30pm so it was nice and dark when the trick or treating began. This year, as we walked around the neighborhood, Luke wasn't very interested in candy at all - he was fascinated with all of the lit up jack-o-lanterns and candles. He pointed them all out, squatted in front of them to check them out and went on to the next house to see what they had. People would ask him if they want candy and he would say no and keep on walking. After about 7 houses he told me he was all done trick or treating! So we headed back to our house and spent the rest of the evening rotating between sitting outside with the dads (and the little fire pit and jack-o-lanterns) watching the parade of costumes and munching on candy and going inside every once in awhile to warm up.
And for those of you wondering, the German kids (and high schoolers) came out in droves to our neighborhood. I don't think that Germans go all out on Halloween like Americans do and they don't trick or treat but after all these years of Americans living in their neighborhoods, they have caught on and join the party.

Luke's first taste of candy corn - can you see the excitement? (Although he keeps calling it acorns instead of candy corn.) :)

Lilly - Luke's 50s girl

It's a costume party!

Luke was invited to his friend Emma's third birthday party. Since her birthday is near the end of October, her mom decided to make it a costume party! Grandma Davis sent Luke a cowboy outfit last month so that is what we decided to wear. I had to alter the "chaps" - they were a little too long and at the last minute I remembered that we dressed up Scout (our little dog) as Sheriff Woody last year for Halloween so I dug out the costume and took the SHERIFF pin from it. :) I was surprised that Luke kept the costume on for such a long period of time. Anyways - it was a gorgeous, sunny day so the kids had lots of fun playing in the backyard while moms and dads carved pumpkins.

Hee-Haw!

We had a Hail and Farewell last night we had to attend for Brian's work and since it is so close to the end of October, it was a costume Hail and Farewell! We ordered costumes a few weeks ago but they didn't arrive in time so at the eleventh hour we all decided to put on overalls and go as farmers! (Honestly, that was the only thing that would fit me so really, what were my options? And NO, I am not going to paint my belly.) So, with Brian and Luke in boots and cowboy hats and me in boots and my big blue UK hat (hmm, I guess I was the redneck in our farmer family), we set out to the Hail and Farewell being held at a German restaurant a few towns over from us. Everyone was in costume and the 2 poor souls who didn't dress up had costumed provided for them by the LTC (a sumo wrestler and a gothic woman) and fun was had by all.