Halloween

(Long post...)
For Halloween this year, we asked Ledger what he wanted to be.  He said Batman.  So we went to Walmart and bought a Batman costume.  A few days later, Chris was trying on his costume to make sure it was coming together well and Ledger realized that he actually wanted to be Jack Sparrow.  Oh boy.  Chris has been working on his Capt. Jack Sparrow costume for more than a year.  Oma donated probably 80 hours of her time sewing an overcoat for the costume.  Chris bought leather belt blanks and hand dyed the leather for his belts and baldric (sword holder).  The rest of the costume was pieced together from individual artisans.  Seriously... How was the rest of the family going to live up to that?  We found a costume for Ledger over the internet that was actually pretty detailed for a kids costume.  Chris made him a junior baldric to match his own and we bought him a pirate sword (naturally).  So Ledger looked pretty awesome.  We decided it would be funny for all of us to dress like Jack Sparrow since there is a scene in the movie with multiple Jacks...

... so we found a super cheap Jack Sparrow costume on ebay for me and bought a K9 costume that we converted for Locke.  So the family was all set to be multiple Jacks.

And then on the day before Halloween, I woke up early to get Ledger dressed for his preschool costume party.  "I WANT TO BE BATMAN!"  Good thing I never returned the first costume.  So we dressed him like Batman but calmly explained that for real Halloween he would have to be Jack Sparrow.  lol.  It's actually a good thing... as it turns out, most of the boys at his preschool were superheros and the girls were mostly princesses.  Go figure. :)  They did a little costume parade around the front yard of the preschool (How cute is it that they are all holding hands?!) and then came inside for everyone to get a turn to tell us about their costume.  Ledger was playing shy, but whispered loudly that he was Batman.  But when his mask was off, he was Bruce Wayne.  Cutie. :)

On Halloween Eve, we squeezed in carving our pumpkins.  I knew that carving would be too much for Ledger, so I asked him to draw a face on his pumpkin and I would cut it out.  He actually drew a GREAT jack-o-lantern face and I cut it pretty much exactly how he drew it (except I evened out the eyes, with permission from the artist). He was very proud!  Chris made a "gourd monster" this year, and it turned out pretty cool too...

Check out that drawn on face!

Ledger helping me carve.

Locke... too little to carve.  So he's just watching the action and eating a cookie.

Gourd monster!!

Ledger's finished pumpkin.  We lighted them with glow sticks.

Halloween morning was crazy.  Daddy woke up early to get into all of his garb.  It took him more than an hour.  (He had dyed and shaved his goatee the night before.)  So once we got him out of the house, the rest of us had to hurry up and get ready to go to Daddy's school costume parade.  It's tradition for us to go and watch and then take lots of pictures!

I took the afternoon off of work so that we could get out on the town and trick-or-treat.  As per tradition, we went to the downtown Boo-Rama and walked along Santa Fe street to collect candy from businesses.  Grammie and Papa went with us and strolled Locke around in the stroller.  We love that the kids' grandparents are able to come and join us for so many fun activities!  We ate dinner together at ARRGGH-bys (Arbys spoken in pirate... get it?) and by this time, I thought Ledger was ready to be done.  He had his costume off and acted like he was tired.  After dinner, we had to stop at a few special friends' house, starting with Jarod and Briana.  So we put the costume back on and Ledger noticed that other kids were going door-to-door, which made him very excited to trick-or-treat again.  He got his second wind.  So we saw the Simpsons and got special gifts including pajamas (Thanks Jarod and Briana!) and then went door-to-door on their street.  Then went to Lynnda and Warren's house... and all of their neighbors.  lol.  We stopped at a church trunk or treat and then went on to see Grammie and Papa.  Special gifts from them including an awesome interactive Batman toy that you use with the ipad -- Ledger didn't have time to stop and check it out though... he was on a candy mission.  We also stopped to see Judy and Phil Mitchell.  They gave Ledger a whole set of Hot Wheels!  Highlight of the night for him.  On our way home we stopped to see the Workmans and Faith took Ledger to trick or treat at her neighbor's house too.  So we finally got home at 8 p.m. and I thought we were ready for bed.  But no!  Our new neighborhood was filled with kids going door-to-door and Ledger didn't want to miss out on the fun.  So Ledger, Locke and I went door-to-door on our block while Dad de-costumed.  (He was dressed in full costume from 6:30 a.m to 8 p.m. and he was ready to be finished!)  Ledger was so super excited to be with other kids running from door to door.  I was just filled with Mommy pride watching my kid have such a great time.  So much fun!  I think this might have been one of my favorite Halloweens so far and I can't wait until Locke is big enough to enjoy the traditions with his big brother!