Halloween 2010

Busy Halloween this year. We started off carving pumpkins early in October at a party with Matt's Lead friends from school. They bought a special little pumpkin just for Josh (the only child there). I didn't think he would show much interest, but he got way into it! First he drew all over the pumpkin with a marker and accomplished an actual FACE (I was so proud)! Then when he saw everyone else cutting designs with these fun looking little knives, he grabbed one for himself and dug right in.

Friday before Halloween, there was trick-or-treating at the business school for all the families. From the way Josh screamed when we wrestled him into his costume outside the building, you would think we were yanking out his fingernails or something. He did NOT want to dress up, and it took him a long time to warm up to the idea of trick-or-treating.

But he still looked dang cute, so it was worth the fight.

He would hardly let Matt put him down the whole night, and he wouldn't say a word to any of the staff. All these strangers smiling at him and letting him take their candy??....He just couldn't make sense of it!

Appreciating his first spider ring of the weekend.

Even with all his friends in costume and showing him how to do it, he would not approach the lady with the candy bowl without a serious pep talk. And even then, I had to go with him. So much sudden shyness from such an energetic boy!

After trick-or-treating, there was the weekly Liquidity Preference Function (LPF), which is basically a weird name for free dinner and drinks. Every Friday the business school has food (and plenty of alcohol) for the students and their families. Basically it's where all our tuition money goes -- to help the other students get drunk before they hit the real bars Friday night. The above picture is of our friends in the food line, and below shows you the student lounge room where all the families with kiddos hang out. We take over. There are tables and chairs and closed doors so the kids can run wild together while the parents try to socialize. 

The next morning was the Tot Lot Halloween Party, which I was in charge of this year along with my friend Melissa. It turned out to be pretty fun! There were treats, prizes, a pumpkin walk, a beanbag toss, bag decorating, and face painting by a super-awesome-professional-artist-type girl. She was really expensive.

That night was the church Halloween party and trunk-or-treat. Always a fun time! My very elaborate costume this year was a bowling ball, while Matt's was a shark attack victim. (Get it? 'Cause our kid was a shark? Clever.)

The night was pretty fun, but ended up being very dramatic. After dinner I went to the face painting room to do my thing again, and Matt came in after a few minutes telling me that Leah (the cute little two-year-old above) fell and cut her face and needed stitches because she was bleeding so much. Her nine-month-pregnant parents were at a hospital for maternity issues and we were helping some friends watch Leah that night. About a million adults at the party rushed in to help with the bloody situation, and eventually we were able to get Leah to the closest emergency room to fix her up. Her parents arrived minutes after we checked in and were able to take care of the situation from there, but can you imagine seeing your baby like this upon arriving at the ER?? 

Man, I don't know if I felt worse for little Leah or for her parents! After a long night and a miracle or two, the stitches worked out beautifully and Leah is healing very well. She and Josh will be snogging again in no time.

And since this is a Halloween post, I just thought I should put up a picture of Baby #2. Judging from this 3-D ultrasound picture, it appears that he dressed up as a pug dog this year.

Or some strange creature with floating, detached appendages.

Either way, we thought he looked pretty darn cute. Look out Halloween 2011! Our boys are going to OWN you!