Trick or Treating 2007

An Extra Hour of Halloween Daylight?

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/31/an-extra-hour-of-daylight-thank-the-candy-lobby/

You know what? I naively thought the change was due to conserving energy... apparently not entirely!

Happy Halloween, 2007!

Flashback! Trenton dressed as a cowboy for this morning... that's what he was last year! Grandma Lacina got him this cool cowboy shirt and belt while on vacation last summer. So here is his day to wear it, right?! We went to the gym this morning and he got a prize from the babysitter there for his outfit (and the monkey suit didn't get dirty for later on!)

The Freehold Mall has indoor trick-or-treating. We met up with Harrison and Jaden to get the goods. The kids had lollipops and got sooooo sticky.

Monkey, Skeleton, and Bat.

Treating at the Senior Center

A second year of attending the MOMS Club outing to the Senior Center to distribute Halloween treats. The kids met up to make magnets a few weeks back (okay, the moms did it) and we brought them with us to the seniors during lunchtime today. There were so many smiles all around!

Harrison, T, Jaden, and Alyssa.

A failed attempt at a posed group shot ;)

Halloween Parade at B&N

Barnes and Noble has a Halloween craft, storytime, and parade each year. Trenton loved putting the stickers on this card for Daddy.

Below, each kid got to put various items (spider teeth, bat wings, frog legs) into the cauldron. The librarian had a witch and an ogre puppet that helped her create this brew.

After the parade around the store, we each got a nice cookie and some pumpkin milk. Yum!

Some free bookmarkers for T!

NEW POTTY!

Okay, this is so exciting. If you don't have kids, you will just not get it ;)
I was in the market for a new potty to keep downstairs for T. The one we have for upstairs is just a seat piece that makes the big seat smaller. This one is a real potty. We got it at Babies R Us and I love it because it is one piece (read: easy clean-up). The idea is that he can sit on it comfortably, reach the floor with his feet, and I can straddle behind him to comfort him while he 'goes'.

He did pee-pee on it immediately after waking up from his nap and seeing it. He insisted that I take off the diaper and his pants! Afterwards, he got a kick out of watching me dump it into the big potty and he got to flush. Woo hoo!

We've been working for awhile now in giving him M&Ms whenever he tells me that he's made poopie. Below is a picture of him post-indulgence. Can you tell what color he ate?

Great Grandma's 87th (?) Birthday

For Great Grandma's birthday, she decided that she wanted to throw herself a party. So Chicken Holiday and Carvel ice cream cake it was! We used to have big parties like this all the time at Grandma's house when I was growing up. It was nice to see my cousins playing with Trenton and everyone having a good time watching sports on TV. My dad is one of seven, and when everyone has their kids there, too, it can get a little... what did Jim call it? Stuffy in there?!?
Robyn came with her husband and son (Nicholas is so big!) and Trenton truly loved playing with Evan, Chad, Johnny, and the rest of the kids.

Above, from left: Grace, Johnny, Cassie, Trenton, Paige, Danielle, Evan, Jack, Grandma and me.

Cutting the cake somehow became my job...

We gave T a bath in the sink and PJed him up in the hopes that he'd fall asleep in the car on the way home. He didn't... he actually didn't fall asleep until 9:30 once home. Stinker! I've had to buy some more sleep sacks for him to wear at night. I think a combination of teething, bad diaper rash, being coddled in the night, and coldness has been disturbing his sleep.

Kim and Al's Halloween Party

Kim and Al had their annual Halloween party this Saturday. Jim and I dressed up, dropped T off at Grandma and Grandpop's, and drove to Weehawken for the party.

Amy was a housewife (very creative costume), Melissa was a bug, and Al was Mr. Invisible.
Below, Kim was a rockin' Smurfette!

Mr. Banana above is Dave. Jim had fun in his costume. Even had the 'ol ball and chain...

A Day of Halloween Celebrations

On Thursday we had a busy day of Halloween partying! It was our last Music Together class, which was kinda sad, but the kids were invited to come in costume. Trenton had never really been in a room full of other costumed children and was a bit timid at first. Then he kinda understood that he was a monkey and other kids were also dressed up as things.

We are so excited because Victor is going to be in our swim class at the YMCA that starts next week! He really is a good little guy and we'll be happy to spend more time with him and his mom.
Holy Elmo Head, eh?

In the afternoon, the MOMS Club had their annual Halloween party. Everyone brought treats and there were games and toys for the kids to play with. Trenton is pictured above with his friend Julia and below with some other costumed kids.

He was actually the last one to hit the pinata with the bat and was pretty much just standing there after the bag was opened and all the candy fell out. He was more concerned with holding the bat! Wish I got a picture of that one...
Oh yeah, and dinner that night consisted of pretzels, cupcakes, and Raisinettes (which I think he thought were gold-- raisins and chocolate in one!)

When we got home I decided it was time for us to paint our pumpkins. In lieu of paint we used Sharpie markers (very fumy, though). He picked up the pumpkin above by the stem and broke it clean off. "Ut oh, what happened?" was the chorus.

He insisted I draw a cat on this pumpkin. I'm not sure if it is because he knows our neighbors have a cat painted on the pumpkin in their yard or if he remembers that I've drawn him cats before on his coloring pad. Either way, he proceeded to scribble out the cat when I was done. I hope that doesn't send the wrong message to our neighbors...

They look like they're growing in a patch in front of our yard! OK-- we're ready for Halloween now!