Our Halloween Party

We had a lovely Halloween celebration here in Rochester. We decided Simon would most enjoy the holiday with a few loved ones, so we threw a Halloween party with Grandpa Steve, Grandma Marilyn, and Uncle Peter (Aunt Karlie couldn't make it :-(...maybe next time).

We made and ate caramel apples, and then painted pumpkins...

...look at those gorgeous pumpkins! Simon was responsible for three of them.

After dinner we dressed Simon in his costume--a bumblebee!

When we saw the wings, antennae, and little stinger at our church rummage sale for $2, we knew we'd found our Halloween costume for the year! Then it was a matter of tracking down black pants (Goodwill), a black shirt (surprisingly difficult to find a child's all-black shirt--that ended up being the most expensive part of the outfit at $8, and I had to buy a girl's shirt that's about 3 sizes too big), and sewing some yellow stripes on. I'm rather pleased with the end result!

Our cute little bee venturing out for his first trick-or-treating adventure!

We went to about 5 houses before heading back home. Simon was getting cold (he had jammies on under his costume, but still), and I was getting concerned at how much candy he was getting--people were putting a handful of candy in a toddler's treat bag! Don't they know toddlers can't delay gratification and will want ALL that candy RIGHT NOW?! (We had to cull through after Simon went to sleep and narrow the selection by swapping out some less-toddler-friendly candy.)

All in all it was a lovely Halloween. We overestimated the number of trick or treaters we'd get and now have TONS of candy left...luckily, I bring candy to my class review sessions, so I will feed at least some of it to college students before Simon notices it is sitting on top of the fridge.

Last but not least, here's a cute video of earlier in the day, when Simon "helped" daddy get ready for the party by raking...er, relocating, leaves (side note: we bought that coat at the same rummage sale, for $2; hat and mittens for $1...I love rummage sales!):