So in an effort to get back into it here's the second part of my Halloween post - the post-Halloween post, as it were!
After all the excitement during the lead up to the big day, our first ever Halloween lived up to the high expectations of Ava and I. Ok, so there was a minor setback when we discovered that the Halloween party we'd been planning to attend wasn't actually on but our evening of trick or treating more than made up for it.
I had originally decided that both Ava and Lola would be dressed as ladybugs for Halloween. I'd been coveting ladybug hoodies that I'd seen on Etsy for quite some time and Halloween seemed like the perfect excuse to go ahead and buy them for the girls. Ava was happy with the idea of matching ladybug costumes until we stepped foot inside a Halloween superstore. Once she saw the huge array of (much more exciting) costumes she just had to find her own costume. Many costumes were tried on: Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, Supergirl, weird cat in a miniskirt... I was quite surprised however when Ava decided that her favorite costume was Cleopatra. The reason for my surprise was that it was also my favorite costume for her! That doesn't usually happen. I think the fact that a wig was involved made it a little more fun than some of the other costumes.
I picked up a flapper dress and feather headband as my costume and Kim was pressured into purchasing a school nerd costume - oh the jokes abound!
So with Ava dressed as Cleopatra, Lola as a ladybug and I as a flapper (NOT as Keira Knightly as I had been asked earlier in the day when I was not in a costume!) we set off on our evening of trick or treating around the neighborhood. Ava quickly latched onto a small group of children and their parents that we met trick or treating a few houses down. We followed this small group from house to house until we arrived a few blocks away in trick or treating heaven. Just a short walk from our house the streets were blocked off to traffic to allow the children to safely make their way around the neighborhood. This was fantastic as the children zigzagged their way across the streets going from one decorated house to the next.
The amount of effort that some families put into decorating their houses was amazing. Most houses had jack-o'-lanterns on their front steps or porches. Most also had masses of fake spider webs. Some had inflatable pumpkins, ghosts or spiders. Some had scary music playing. Some had headstones dotted through their gardens. One had a mechanical spider that jumped out of nowhere and landed on the head of the host when he handed candy to the children. The most impressive thing, in my book, was the families that had pooled together and set up a buffet of food on the street to feed the trick or treaters and their parents. Such generosity. We came across about three of these buffet tables during the evening - which was great as we were trick or treating around dinner time and a dinner of candy was not such a tempting idea!
And then there were the costumes. Most children wore run of the mill costumes bought from the Halloween superstores that pop up everywhere in October. Some of these were pretty generic (think Disney Princess) and others a little more interesting - like Cleopatra :) There were plenty of fairies, pirates, witches, dinosaurs, firemen... But then there were the amazing, homemade costumes. There was a kid dressed as a taco. There was a whole family dressed as the characters from Mario Kart. There was a lego man - Indiana Jones lego man, no less! There was even a kid dressed as an iPhone! And of course, one very cute little ladybug :)
After an hour or two of trick or treating it was time to come home and experience Halloween from the other side. My, that sounds grim! What I mean is, it was our turn to hand out the candy. By the time we got home the trick or treaters were mostly tucked in bed - or at home pigging out on candy - so we only got a handful (maybe 6 - 8) of trick or treaters coming to our door. I think that Ava was just as excited about "selling" the candy, as she called it, as she was about collecting it. She sat on the front porch for about an hour patiently waiting for people to come by. Once it was clear that the trick or treaters were all done it was time for Ava to sort through her loot.
To make our first Halloween even more memorable Lola started taking her first real steps as Ava sorted through her candy. Lola's first "big" walk was making a bee line straight to the pile of candy that Ava had just poured out of her pumpkin bucket! I was so glad that I had the camera on hand.
All in all our first Halloween was a wonderful occasion that we'll remember for a long time. Ava has already started planning her costumes for the next few years!
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