Halloween was really fun this year. Our kids are at the perfect age for it! Tanner was a cheetah and Dallin was an alligator. The boys enjoyed doing projects and singing songs all throughout October related to Halloween. On Halloween day we especially did a lot of singing.
This year, I didn’t do a family costume theme. Tanner wanted to be yet another type of wild cat that roars, and I am out of family themes that have to do with wild cats, haha. (Last year he was a tiger, so we were African safari theme. The year before last, he was a lion, so we did Wizard of oz.) So instead, I just got the boys costumes that are also warm pajamas, so we can use these costumes all winter long to keep them warm.
A few days before Halloween, we enjoyed a little carnival at church put together by the cub scouts. Tanner and Dallin thought the donuts on a string was fun!
But I think this was their favorite station.
Lilia and Manny came with us to the carnival and enjoyed watching all the kids.
I was a gypsie at the carnival.
For breakfast on Halloween, we made ghost pancakes.
After we dropped Tanner off for school, Dallin fell asleep on the way home. Nice and cozy in his costume!
After Tanner’s preschool, I took the boys to the Hormel corporate office to trick-or-treat. This is our only time during the whole year to see where Daddy works, so it’s almost more exciting than getting candy. For those that might have forgotten, Jeremy is the brand manager of Hormel Natural Choice Lunchmeat.
Dallin liked this award that Jeremy got.
I liked all his product boxes on display.
His desk turns into a standing desk, and he uses the standing option a little bit everyday.
Then off we went from cubical to cubical. We were not really prepared for the boys’ reactions to everything. Almost every candy we came to was a big mystery to our kids.
Jeremy- Oooh they have starbursts!
Tanner- What are starbursts?
J- fruity candy.
Dallin- Is it chocolate?
J- No. But it’s still candy.
T- But candy is bad for you!
D- I only want chocolate.
That’s how it went for about the first half of our trick-or-treating experience. They didn’t know what starbursts, snickers, skittles, laffy taffy, reese’s peanut butter cups and other candy was, But they sure were excited about all the signs of Spam, pepperoni and other Hormel products that were around the office! LOL. Honestly, this made Jeremy and I really proud. Seems like our personal limit to reduce sweets to just dark chocolate has actually made a difference for us AND our kids.
But our kids’ limited exposure to candies was only part of the story. Tanner was refusing to let grown-ups put candy in his bag. It started with just a quiet shake of his head or a kind “no thank you.” But as he kept discovering that every cubical was offering candy, Tanner got more and more upset. “Candy again!? Why is everyone giving out candy? What about healthy food??” We had no idea he was going to act this way! I was torn. I loved how he wanted healthy food, but it was also really embarrassing because he was being rude to everyone about it.
We pulled Tanner aside and talked it through. He was afraid that he would have to eat all the candy that night! And he didn’t want to get sick from it all. I remembered how a couple weeks earlier, he ate some sweets and got a tummy ache, which must have been the trigger to this worry. So we assured him he doesn’t have to eat any of the candy, but he should be nice and put some in his bag. We also assured him that a little bit of candy is okay to eat. And I promised him I would throw away anything we don’t want to eat.
Tanner was better for the rest of the corporate trick or treating. There were several cubicals that gave away fruit snacks and toys, which Tanner was really excited about. After 45 minutes, we headed to Sacred Heart Nursing Home to trick or treat there and say hello to the grandmas and grandpas, but the treats were all gone. So we headed home for dinner.
After dinner, we headed out for some trick-or -treating on the town. The weather was warm, in the 50’s I think.
Manny was kind enough to hand out candy to all the kids that came to our door. He even kept a tally of how many kids came, it was something like 40.
Like every year, we made stops to our neighbors houses.
And then we went to a neighborhood with sidewalks and homes closer together. The boys had a much better time trick-or treating in the neighborhoods. Maybe the excitement of going door to door was the difference, or maybe they changed their mind about candy. Maybe it was that we ran into our friends (Kristen and Riley that came to Wisconsin with us) that got them excited about candy? Whatever it was, we had fun!
We didn’t stay out too late (per Jeremy’s request). I was able to convince him to take us to a few houses in the back of our neighborhood. On the ride there, Dallin was singing the trick-or-treat song from the show Little Einstein’s, so I suggested that at the next house we coiuld sing the song to the people and maybe they will give us lots of candy! We stepped up and sang to the tune of In the Hall of the Mountain King by Greig, “We are here to trick or treat, trick or treat, trrck or treat. We are here to trick or treat, Oh Happy Halloween!!!” The people were impressed, but they only gave the boys one candy each.
Tanner was irate. “Mom, you were WRONG!! This is so stupid, I want to go home!” I reminded him that I didn’t say they would, I said maybe they would. “Let’s just try it at one more house and see what happens, ok?” Both boys agreed.
At the next stranger’s house, we sang again. The man LOVED it and said, “That is the best trick or treating I’ve ever heard! You deserve extra candy for that!” And he gave both boys HUGE handfuls of his candy to them. Haha!! We decided that was a perfect way to end the adventures!
Tanner was irate. “Mom, you were WRONG!! This is so stupid, I want to go home!” I reminded him that I didn’t say they would, I said maybe they would. “Let’s just try it at one more house and see what happens, ok?” Both boys agreed.
At the next stranger’s house, we sang again. The man LOVED it and said, “That is the best trick or treating I’ve ever heard! You deserve extra candy for that!” And he gave both boys HUGE handfuls of his candy to them. Haha!! We decided that was a perfect way to end the adventures!
We had lots of time to sort through the treasures at home. We discovered that Dallin’s favorite candies are suckers. The oral sensory input from those suckers is pretty satisfying for this little kid.
Tanner ate several kinds of candy, but he was mostly interested in the kit to build a foam pirate ship that he got as a treat! The boys and Jeremy worked on those ships a long time.
When it was past time for bed, the boys lit up some special green and orange flashlights that they got from school. They turned off all the lights and did a light and dance show for us! They did jumping, twirling, zigzagging, waving hands like crazy everywhere! We couldn’t believe they had so much energy after all we had done. It was so fun seeing our boys in complete excitement over a simple flashlight. What a fun family day. We were all very happy!!
