Halloween, the First Real One

When Samuel's first Halloween came around, he was four months old. He went as a baby. The second one, we were flying back from CA. We had been staying with Nana, and Sam was just getting the hang of walking. Because of this, I had grand plans to dress him as a zombie, but when we finally made it home, everyone was just tired. So this was Sam's first real, live Halloween. With a costume and candy and pumpkin carving--the works. Here goes...

We started the day with pancakes. Or, Samcakes, as Charlie calls them.

There's quite the pile of whip cream on that pancake.

We harvested our volunteer pumpkin on Saturday. (Volunteer as in, a volunteer plant from an uncomposted pumpkin seed in our compost that was spread on my garden bed.)

The toddler is there for scale.

A good looking specimen. It never got fully orange, but a gorgeous striped green and amber.

"PUMPKIN!!"

Intrepid carvers

Totally disinterested in posing with the handiwork.

Mama designed and carved. Sam supervised. And scribbled Sharpie all over himself.
Shaun the Sheep!

I attempted to re-recreate the overall look of Shaun. Sam loves the animation, but really didn't get the concept of a costume until we had him fully dressed and showed him his reflection in the bathroom mirror. THEN, he got into it.

If you don't know Shaun, you should: http://www.shaunthesheep.com/

The scene in Ballard.

For two hours, families swarmed Ballard and trick-or-treated the merchants.

Getting to work.

(Note the mitten "paws." I am especially proud of those!)

Okay, it looks like a fluffy mob cap, but Shaun has quite a tuft of wool on top.

Sam was very serious about the whole business.

Shaun's oversized tail

Distracted in Secret Garden Books.

A family was posing their kids on the other side of this tree, so Sam decided that it must be part of the whole Halloween business and got to it.
Sheep meets duckling
Bergen Place (or the Five Corners)

Dancing with Dad

We grabbed a cupcake, then headed out to harass friends. Over to Greenlake to see Zip and Jeanmarie-- plus the bonus of Erica. Then a stop at Zeek's for some pizza. Finally, we headed over to Capital Hill to visit the Cousins and crash their friends Geoff and Barbara's party. Cousin David was stationed on the porch scaring trick-or-treaters with elaborate tricks. We hung out and helped-- as in, Sam yelling "No, no! Go 'way!"

Hanging by a thread, but it lasted!

Ten years of costuming, my friends.

Sam was confused by the whole concept of using "trick-or-treat." But after I dropped a chocolate coin in his pumpkin, he was enthusiastic about the product, if not the process. He's been running around suggesting, "Treat!" in the perkiest tone.

Our favorite moment of the day:

Standing in line at Cupcake Royale, there was another little boy, about three, ahead of us. He was wearing a Batman costume, with the mask pushed back. Sam stepped ahead of us to lean on the cupcake case and gaze adoringly. Then Batman spied the Sheep, and the Sheep returned the gaze. Their eyes locked. Batman raised his hands to ever so slowly lower his mask. This was all wordless-- Charlie decided the subtext was, "So, Sheep, we meet at last."

Insanely surreal and wonderful.