2014 Halloween Monkey Business

I’ll warn everyone now that this post is photo heavy, we had just so much fun with Halloween this year I want to make sure I get it all documented. After heading to the pumpkin patch a couple of weeks ago, we had our pumpkin carving experience for the first year in our new house. This year A was a bit more interactive this year, obviously. Although, she was pretty unsure of the ooey-gooey pumpkin pulp getting on her hands and in the mind of an almost-two-year-old pumpkin carving takes too much time but gosh darn it, popping out the shapes is a blast! 😉

Like last year, I made A’s Halloween costume. She make an awesome monkey sound and loves monkey’s right now so a monkey costume. We looked at a remade costume but apparently we weren’t the only ones that thought monkeys were a great costume this year, so finally I decided it would be just as fast to just make one and actually a little bit cheaper. I love making things for A so I didn’t mind. I got a hoody and pants, some felt and a chanelle stem for her tail and to perk up her ears. I then got some tulle to make a tutu because this girl loves frills right now and dressing up is a blast, right now. So I went for it.

Halloween morning I started off the day making pancakes in the shape of pumpkins because fun stuff is just fun like that when you have kids. Gosh, I love holidays so much more now that I’m a mama. The thought of her excitement, traditions and memories just get me downright excited.

Trick or treating was a lot of fun. It was obviously our first year in our new neighborhood and there were so many people on our street. So many friendly people and generous candy givers. A wasn’t so sure about walking up to a bunch of strange houses and knocking without us. I can’t say I would blame her even if she wasn’t shy – it is a little odd. So many people gave her compliments and she definitely gravitated to the older/elderly neighbors over the middle aged ones. One neighbor gave her play dough and Cheetos, that was pretty neat. I know Halloween is all about the sweets but I kind of want to hug the people that give them other fun stuff. We walked up to one house and the woman who opened the door was probably mid-eighties and A just wanted to keep going back again and again. She told her “here’s some candy to make you even sweeter, but I bet you are already sweet enough.” So sweet.

On Saturday, we went to the local trick-or-treat street at the local middle school. We decided it would be fun to go to something that the town 4H puts on and it was free so why not. We invited my grandparents up as they live about 20 minutes from us to join in on the festivities. They lived 500 miles from me while I was growing up so I knew they would be thrilled to join us for the festivities. They sure love A, they are constantly enamored by her and bragging about her to their friends. A was still her shy self and was pretty unsure for the majority of our time out and about going through the halls. She did have a lot of fun and the middle schoolers that were dressed up throughout the halls were fun to see. The local businesses sponsored each stop. At the end of the “Trick or Treat Street” they had some fun games and she came out of her shell about that time. She enjoyed mini-golfing, tossing the ball into the hoop, spinning the prize wheel. We ended up joining in on musical chairs and we won (although I’m pretty sure the sweet girl running the booth set it up that way), and A won a cupcake. Oh goodness, she was thrilled with the cupcake she won. At the very end a local farm donated a bunch of free pumpkins, so we took a big one and a little one. They were begging us to take more! Ha. We definitely didn’t need any more though.
Overall, Halloween 2014 was a success. Life with this sweet girl is so much fun and gives us so much to look forward to.