Halloween

I was going to post Halloween and Thanksgiving together, but it turns out I have more pictures than I thought I did, so you get two posts in one day!  (Lucky you!)

For this Halloween, Michael actually wanted to dress up!  So I did everything I could to make his dream of being an "orange kitty" come true.  Unfortunately, black is the popular choice for kitty costumes and, apparently, it is a girl thing to dress up as a cat.  So, unless I: A) had a strong desire to try to convince Michael that he really wanted to be a black cat, and B) wanted Michael in a frilly, feathery, or ruffly costume with pink or purple bows on it, I needed to make his outfit myself.  

Thankfully, Michael is a pretty easy kid to please.  I just bought an orange hat and mittens set, an orange shirt, some orange and pink felt, and a bit of fabric paint and Voila! We have an orange kitty!

Here is his costume in all its cute, kitty glory:

He sure does like hitting people (mainly baby Daniel) with that tail.

Here is Michael on Halloween night, psyched to go trick-or-treating for the first time (notice Daniel next to him, dressed as Jake from Jake and the Neverland Pirates- he was very adorable as well):

Trick-or-treating didn't go as well as I was hoping, as everyone in our townhomes seemed to be either not home or out of candy by the time we got out and about (around 7:30pm- seriously, people?).  Thankfully, the kids still had fun knocking on doors and getting the occasional piece of candy, so it was worth almost freezing to death for.  

I was a bit irritated at the number of people who thought it was hilarious to ask Michael, "What does the fox say?" referring to this bit of weird European eccentricity: What Does the Fox Say (music video).  Of course, it bothered me far more than it bothered Michael (he didn't get that they didn't recognize what he was) because I had worked pretty hard on that costume and my son was an orange kitty, dang it.  

Besides trick-or-treating and trunk-or-treating, we celebrated Halloween season with the local pumpkin patch, which Michael begged to go to almost every day.

He really enjoyed wearing his kitty hat and gloves there, which was nice because they had a little maze where it was easy to lose small children.

...Unless they had small, orange ears poking above the hay bales:

There was also the kernel pit where adults let their children play, not suspecting how much corn their children would be smuggling into their cars and houses with their tiny shoes and diapers.  So much fun!

A new attraction this year was the addition of a few tube slides:

Michael thought they were the greatest thing ever.

Even better than the free funny-face pancake he got Halloween morning from IHOP.  Doesn't his look just like the one in the ad on the table?  Michael did a great job of decorating his pancake, even if he sucked at eating it ("Can I take one bite, Cyndi?").  Oh well, at least it was free.