Halloween... Finally

Halloween used to be fun. It used to be one of my favorite holidays. I even used to be one of those annoying older kids trick-or-treating well beyond what was appropriate. In fact, I went trick-or-treating every year right up until I went off to college, long after having the ability to buy my own candy with my own money.

I guess I'm growing up, because I've decided that Halloween is a lot of work for very little payout. We definitely had fun, but it wasn't up to my usual Halloween standards. Maybe as Michael gets older it will get fun again.

In any case, we kicked off the Halloween season with Michael and I going to a local pumpkin patch with our neighbors. Everything was free and we were pleasantly surprised at the quality of the free entertainment.

There was a corn pit which Michael did not like unless I was sitting in it with him on my lap. I'm still finding the occasional kernel from what was smuggled into the house in clothes, shoes, and diapers.

Michael's reaction to being placed in the corn pit:

We also went on a hayride:

And visited the petting zoo where we found a pig that could have easily eaten every kid there. Whole. Michael thought the pig was hilarious and didn't seem the least bit concerned that its fence was simply a decoration placed there to make us feel secure:

The only other animal Michael really liked was the kangaroo, but I wasn't able to get any pictures of him petting it since it was housed with a stupid, mean llama that kept trying to bite people and I needed both hands to keep Michael from getting nipped.

When we left, I bought a few pumpkins and ended up buying Michael's new best friend. He ran around with his tiny pumpkin in his hand and occasionally spiked it on the ground, I assume to show it he didn't need it in his life and it should be grateful for whatever attention he bestowed upon it before he abandoned it:

I was way more excited about Michael's puppy costume than he was, and we had to practice wearing it the week before so he wouldn't cry all Halloween night. But it was worth it. He was stinking cute as a puppy.

I was able to show him off at the ward Halloween party. That was the best thing about the party. I signed up to make a pie and cupcakes and kicked myself thoroughly for it when I had to spend the day actually making them. My chocolate cream pie didn't have time to set properly, and I didn't realize the cupcakes were for a cakewalk where the kids chose their prize, so I made pumpkin cinnamon cupcakes that tasted amazing but looked... unappetizing to children. It was frustrating. But at least I had the cutest kid there:

I invited my little sister, Katie, to come with us to our Trunk-or-Treat on Halloween night and take Michael around to other cars while I handed out candy:

We were done about 5 minutes after the trunk-or-treating started. They visited a few cars, but Michael quickly tired of it and Katie wasn't comfortable begging candy off strangers for a one year old who could care less. I was close to running out of candy by the time they got back and we decided to call it quits and save some candy for the actual trick-or-treaters. I shouldn't have bothered.

What happened to trick-or-treating etiquette? You only knock at doors that have the porch light on, right? That's how we signal to trick-or-treaters that we have candy to share if they say the magic words, right? Maybe they thought my neighbor's light meant my house had candy too. I don't know. I do know that I still had kids knocking and ringing my doorbell long after I ran out of candy and shut off my porch light. In the end, I made a sign stating I was "Out of Candy. Sorry", and hung it on my door. I don't think they caught the sarcasm in the "Sorry", but they left us alone and I was able to put Michael to bed.

Next year should be better. I think Michael might actually get excited about Halloween, I'll plan ahead and won't scramble for a costume the morning of, and I'm not going to volunteer to bring anything to the ward party.