First Family Halloween

This post has been delayed multiple times now because of some technical difficulties on my end. I'm still figuring out the pros and cons of our new computer, and unfortunately photo storage and uploading has become a huge hassle. I'm especially annoyed because I was finally getting back into a good groove of posting regularly, and then the technology gods threw their hammers (er, hard drives? floppy disks?) upon me.

Anyway, let's focus on something fun: Marshall's first Halloween! It was super mellow, but we had a lot of fun and a lot of build up to it, so I really felt like we made it a memorable one (for mom and dad, anyway). Our first stop was the pumpkin patch.

We chose just one "family pumpkin" and one tiny pumpkin and left it at that. We knew time would be tight as far as actually carving, so carving only one seemed like a good idea. Terry did an awesome job with a classic jack-o-lantern.

On Halloween, we had fun with a few different costumes for Marshall, like the police "uniform" my parents got him. They gave it to us when Marshall was teeny-tiny, so I was thrilled that it fit him perfectly on the real day!

Another costume: James Bond.

And for Marshall's actual costume, he was Harold from the book Harold and the Purple Crayon. I don't remember how we came up with the idea, but I happened to find a white footed sleeper two weeks before Halloween, and Terry made the purple crayon out of a paper towel roll. Then Terry's dad suggested we (Terry and I) go as Harold's drawings, which was perfect. Super simple and still creative!

(Source)

I had never heard of this book until we received it (actually two copies!) for gifts for Marshall. It's a wonderful book and I can't recommend it enough! Thanks to my friend Amanda and my aunt DL for the gifts!

On the evening of Halloween we really wanted to get out and do something festive, but trick-or-treating seemed kinda silly, especially since we didn't really want any candy. (Actually, I recently read a great idea from a new-to-me blog, Going Dad: He took his almost-one-year-old trick-or-treating and simply made it about visiting/meeting new people, saying hello, and moving on. I love that idea for kids that young. They get the fun and excitement without the unnecessary candy. But yes, eventually we will allow Marshall to have candy on Halloween and other times too.)

Anyway, we saw signs around a park that we really like for a little Halloween festival. Tons of families turned out in costumes, the city had lots of fun carnival games and a movie in the park, and it wasn't very crowded but still felt festive.

It was a wonderful first Halloween as a family!

Hope yours was awesome, too! Any fun stories or amazing costumes?