news of the boy
Tue, 01 Nov 2005 - 15:26
This past weekend we drove down from the mountains to participate in the various Halloween Festivities with Granni and Pop-Pop and the Smith Family and Mommy's friend Kristin.
Saturday we had an invitation to go with Kristin to her church, to play games, have a wienie roast and go "Trunk-or-Treating" in the parking lot.
The Boy is opposed to wearing almost anything other than the usual pants and a shirt -- Mommy put him in a pair of overalls the other day and he had a fit. "Can't I just wear regular pants?!" he wailed. But she showed him how his toy hammer would fit into the loop on the left leg, and he was happy about it after that. He's the only 3-year-old boy in the world who doesn't like dressing up.
What that means is it took considerable convincing for him to wear a Halloween costume -- even though it was Thomas the Tank Engine. Granni had a "Gumby" suit set up on a tripod, and Dalton was a little afraid of it. So we told him that he could either be Gumby or Thomas, and he chose accordingly. He still asked several times throughout the evening if he could take his costume off.
The Boo was dressed as Minnie Mouse, and was a big hit with everyone, even though she kept pulling off her "ears." She didn't like having them on her head, although the rest of the costume didn't bother her a bit.
At the church party, Dalton played some halloween games for a while, and won a very cute stuffed Winnie-the-Pooh bear (which his sister immediately took ownership of, as The Boy wasn't interested) and a few plastic creepy-crawlies. Then he decided it would be more fun to run around the church grounds and explore, with Daddy in tow. Eventually, Mommy flagged him down and we went to roast hotdogs and marshmallows at the bonfire. That is to say, Daddy roasted the wienies and marshmallows, since the fire was pretty hot and Dalton didn't want to stick around near it.
The kids wolfed down the dogs and the chips and the marshmallows and the sodas, then it was time to run. Dalton started zipping this way and that around a grassy area, until he tripped on his costume and took a header into the dirt. There was some crying and Mommy took off his Thomas outfit and he immediately started running around again. At that point, some of the other kids started running with him, and they played a merry game of "chase me" for a while.
Eventually, it was time to hit the parking lot for "Trunk-or-Treat" out of the backs of the cars. Mommy and Lexie stayed with the Explorer to hand out goodies, while Daddy and Dalton cruised the cars for candy. The Boy was very cute and polite, since we had cautioned him to refrain from using "Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat!" and employ instead the much simpler and shorter "Trick or treat!" That worked, and he said "Thanks!" when the loot was delivered to his waiting bag.
By the time we returned to Granni & Pop-Pop's, both munchkins were running on empty, and even with the sugar buzz, bedtime was quick in coming.
Sunday, we had a triple birthday celebration for Pop-Pop, Kip and Ben, then went to the playground at a nearby elementary school where there were again some plentiful opportunities to run around like fools. The Boy dug in the sand, slid on the slides, and rode a "real" bike for the very first time! The Smiths had kindly brought one of their kids' little bikes, complete with training wheels, and Dalton had a fine time pedaling around the basketball court. Not bad, considering that just two weeks ago he finally got the knack of using the pedals on his trike!
On Halloween night, we journeyed to the mall -- mostly just to run around some more, since the last thing we needed was more candy. We stayed for about an hour or so, walking around the mall and looking at all the other kids in costumes.
Of course, it wouldn't be Halloween at the mall without Christmas decorations, and the photo above shows Dalton standing in front of the display where Santa will be hanging out in a few weeks. How irritating. It wasn't a total loss, though, as The Boy scored a couple more pieces of candy from some of the stores, then we came back home and went to bed.
