halloween 2011

coco chose to be a robot for halloween this year, and we duly obliged with a handmade silver-foiled costume. it was an old cardboard box, some flexy arms from the hardware store's piping section, a foil-covered bike helmet and some randomness throughout. he loved the costume! particularly once we cut a trap door entrance into the back - it had been a matter of coordiation, cooperation and persuasion to get him through the process of donning a cardboard box before that!

we went to breakfast and the park on halloween morning - he wore his costume the whole time, convinced that if he took it off he wouldn't be convincing as a real robot. at the breakfast place - little nest on commercial drive - two of the kitchen staff were also dressed as robots, as well as a little girl who came in, which he enjoyed. at the park he wanted to be pushed on the swings - in the box - and found the experience challenging, to say the least.

halloween night was fantastic. we had to nix plans to walk with mi ae and aiden since he caught a cold, but we walked to about 20 houses and he got quite the haul. he has delighted in counting, sorting, organizing, eating, whinging about and pleading for this pile today. ;)

some photos:

that pumpkin time of year

we went to the pumpkin patch this past weekend, an activity known far and wide amongst parent circles as one part pumpkin acquisition and three parts photo op:

 

 

 

pumpkin patchery

we visited westham island herb farm a few weekends ago now to pick up our pumpkins for halloween (as opposed to the pumpkins we need for other purposes!).  it was a great day for picking!

halloween hoedown

much fun was had on saturday morning, carving the pumpkins we got last week at westham island. the most fun was had, to be honest, during the goo-scooping part. we scooped goo like professional goo-scoopers. cole really enjoyed it and we had a relatively tidy time. but the morning got along and we had plans to head out to langley for some trick-or-treating in gramma & grampa's neck of the candy-stocked woods. so, while cole ate lunch, we took turns doing a lightning-round of pumpkin carving.

and we finally settled on cowboy for cole's halloween costume. it was a tossup between homemade cowboy and last-year's duck, but cowboy got the most votes (in my non-scientific, undocumented, biased, random passing mentions to friends & family...). yee haw:

the costume was a scramble of bits and pieces that turned out really well. on hand we had a hand-me-down plaid flannel shirt that he wears all the time and of course his much-loved cowboy hat. to counter the chill he wore a few sweaters under the shirt - hence the very cowboy-like physique. i have a "mystery drawer" that contains interesting toys and whatnot that i find at random regular intervals. once in a while i grab something fun from the drawer - this time i hauled out a sheriff badge and a six-pack of various stick-on mustaches from the japanese dollar store (it's quite a drawer!). on friday we stopped by the granville island toy store on main because i randomly remembered that they had the horse-on-a-stick toy that would be really perfect, and hey, at least it's a waste of money that turns into long-term entertainment! the horse needed 2aa batteries to make a very authentic clip-clop sound, so i took those from our remote (and used the tv manually - oh, the horror!) oh, and i found a potato gun because apparently i'm promoting violence? (not really - just really into accessories!) and last but not least, i made cole a cowboy-style drooling kerchief late on friday night and then gussied up a pair of brown courdoroy pants by temporarily basting a strip of fringe-cut fleece onto each leg. fancy!

we had a great night, playing outside and, when it got dark enough, trick-or-treating with the lovely folks next door. their little guy james was the cutest frog! the boys really got the hang of it after a couple of houses. mmm... "cole" is really going to enjoy that candy! ;-)

picking a pack of pumpkins

pumpkin-picking this past saturday at the westham island pumpkin patch. lots of fun had by all!

we walked in the mud (thank you self, for remembering to wear rubber boots this year), posed with the festive seasonal decorations, rode in the wheelbarrow and on the tractors, including a "real" one that i didn't realize was in-use and the farmer kind of gave me a side-eye when we were done playing on it... and we picked three stellar pumpkins of course, despite thinking one was enough initially. what can i say - we became caught up in the excitement of not-rotten pumpkin scavenging, because as you know, it's only acceptable to buy the stickered pumpkins under extreme circumstances. ;-)

now, back to debating what to dress cole as for halloween. he still fits his duck costume from last year (it was too big then and perfect now) and he seriously loves that costume. it's been in my craigslist/giveaway pile for a while, but he keeps hauling it out and asking me to help him put it on. seriously the cutest thing ever. and he's a good quacker. on the other hand, i was thinking cowboy - some homemade not-fancy getup. we'll see...

Halloween is for the ducks

Cole's first Halloween experience was a smash hit. We had a thoroughly good time dressing him up in a duck suit. You don't get many chances to put another human being into a silly costume, so we are definitely taking our opportunities now. Jamie found this one in California. Cole goes kooky for duck quacking sounds, so this was a good choice, we figured. We did get to make lots of quacking sounds to him - with varying degrees of interest on his part.

It's hard to figure out what to do for Halloween when you live downtown... We had planned to go to the somewhat lame Yaletown Halloween thing - where all the kiddies march around to 'area merchants' for candy and there is some kind of costume parade. Aside from the fact that it coincided with Cole's naptime (we were going to chance it!), the pouring rain did the trick and got us to change our minds; walking around with a napping baby dressed as a duck underneat a stroller rain canopy is less fun than just weird.

So, we carved our pumpkin at home, packed it up and hit the highway and for a visit to Grandma & Grandpa's. They'd gone all out decorating the house and I was glad we got to see it. We knocked on a couple doors (hi everyone!), loved seeing little James next door dressed up adorably and had a great time showing our little ducky the ropes.

He didn't eat any candy (obviously, what with working his way through the mashed fruits & veg) but he loved the crispy wrappers and the colours. Just wait until he realizes what's inside...

Searching for that perfect pumpkin...

We visited the Westham Island herb farm yesterday way out in Ladner. It's been our favourite place to get fresh-off-the-vine pumpkins for a few years at least. It was particularly windy, so Cole was a touch distractable, but cool, clear and gorgeous Fall weather out. Have I mentioned how much I love the Fall? I know that's not terribly original, but I really do love it. Everything, including the rainy days too. (Note to self: buy some more apple cider today. Maybe make a meatloaf?)

Cole was really into feeling all of the pumpkins. We didn't remember to get our rubber boots from the storage locker downstairs, so we stuck to the ample selection of picked & washed pumpkins, rather than venturing out into the muddy patch in our suede sneakers... I can't wait to do that next year, when Cole will be able to appreciate all that lovely muck!

We don't have lots of pumpkin-carving time this week (Jamie is traveling for part of it) or a front stoop to put them on, so we just got a little tiny one that Cole seemed to keep coming back to. It is small and perfectly round and has a tiny little frayed stem.

He was really intent on all the little things today too, like hay, grass and leaves. He kept plucking and really investigating the textures. He kept us on our toes, making sure he didn't eat any of the found treasures...