We love Halloween around here, and I guess since a week’s passed, I should write about it already! This year we did a couple of things. Our little J is getting the idea of dressing up and loving it so far. We hadn’t thought much about costumes except that we wanted to do a family costume again. At Thanksgiving, my cousin’s wife asked Julian what he was going to be for Halloween and he said Peter Pan! I was a bit surprised since he’s so into superheroes lately, but we’d picked up a book about Peter Pan at a flea market recently and I guess he liked it more than I realized! Then we watched the movie and he was sold.
With not much time left, I wasn’t sure if we’d be able to pull it together, especially after we went to a Halloween store and nearly fainted at the price tag on their pirate coat – $134!! But we went over to a local Value Village and scored a long, red felt coat from the Ladies section for Tyler’s Captain Hook for $25. Adding a long curly wig and pirate hat as well as fairy wings and a tutu for me pretty well completed our shopping. We bought green leggings and a shirt from Old Navy for our little Pan, which he can wear again. Then we rounded it out with a trip to Michael’s for felt to make this Peter Pan hat plus some jingly bells for me (and lots left for Christmas crafts!)
Ready to party!
Our little Peter Pan really got into character in the days leading up to Halloween. We play acted out parts of the story over and over, generally in full costume. We talked about Wendy, John, and Michael. His stuffed animals were Lost Boys. The night before theHalloween party, I was adding bells to my wings and noticed Julian rummaging through his dresser drawers. When I asked him what he was looking for, he replied, ‘My shadow!’
The next morning, he woke up Tyler by standing over him, wanting to play so badly, and whispered, Tick tock! Tick tock! like the crocodile after Captain Hook.
At the annual family Halloween party, we were also happy to surprise Julian with a few more characters from the story. His aunt was Wendy, her boyfriend was Smee, and his grandma was Tiger Lily. He was more interested in the snacks (especially popcorn), and playing in the basement, but we had a good time in spite of his grandpa’s scary Batman mask.
I was due to make snacks for nursery school the Tuesday before Halloween as well and so I stole this idea for banana ghosts from a post I saw online. Bananas, cut and dipped the bottom in orange juice to keep from browning, mini chocolate chips as eyes and a raisin for the mouth.
Finally on the big day, we went over to my cousin’s house for a pizza dinner and snacks. Another cousin and his wife came over with their girls too, and so our little 2 year olds all went trick or treating together! All three of these sweet kids were well-received at doors, polite, and to be honest got the concept of ring doorbell, wait without barging into home, hold out bucket for candy, say thank you! better than I’d expected.
Our kid didn’t last too long. After a few houses, he spotted a park and wanted to go play. He also did really like the idea of ‘treats’ but turned around and re-handed his candy out to kids coming up to a door as he was leaving it a few times.
It wasn’t too bad for a first real trick or treating experience. Last year we really just went to our parents’ houses to show off his costume. This was the first Halloween going door to door and we really had fun dressing up and showing him all the decorated houses. Boo!