H is for Halloween

We attended the annual Halloween parade in downtown Longmont last Saturday.  Last year was the first time we had gone and it was so much fun.  I am always amazed by how many people turn out for it - seems like the whole town!  Poor Ava was sick, but everyone else got to join in on the parade fun. 

Gone are the days of the homemade costumes (at least for now).  I have so much on my plate, but it is also a lot easier to make a homemade costume for one and we all know you can't make a homemade costume for one and not the other or you just end up being the bad Mom who favors one over the other.  So, affordable, gently used costumes for both it is!

Ian was a dragon - he wore this costume several times before the parade, but for the life of me I could not get him to wear the dragon head during the parade.  Choose your battles, right?  He did have the dragon roar down pat though!

I thought for sure Milo would be the one fighting the hood because he won't wear anything on his head - ever.  He surprised me though!  Milo was a whoopie cushion!!  I will miss the days when I can no longer dress my kids the way I want to, so for now I shall revel in it.  A lot of people gave me crap for dressing him in pink, but my response to that was...a whoopie cushion is pink!  He had to wear pink or otherwise he would have looked like a wannabe whoopie cushion.  Right?  He is cute enough (and secure enough in his manhood - ha!) to pull it off and if this is the only embarrassing photo I get of him through the years then I would consider him a lucky kid. 

 Ian and his favorite cupcake, Ella:)

Our Motley Crew

We strolled Main Street with all the other trick or treaters - kids taking turns in and out of the wagon and adults taking turns pulling the wagons.  We saw several great costumes, but the best by far is the Lego family.  We saw them leaving parade last year, but I wasn't able to get a good photo and it looks like this year they added a new member to their Lego family! 

After the parade, it was time to hit up the downtown merchants for candy.  It was a bit crazy - lots of kids, lots of candy, and lots of skill to navigate those unruly wagons through the crowd!  We had to tell a couple of white lies to make it through the madness.  1.  You can only get candy if you are in the wagon and 2.  You can't open candy until the end because you have to choose your favorite and you can't know your favorite until you have all your candy.  I am sure it is no surprise to learn #2 did not go so well, but I can't really blame them:)

We had a great couple of hours, but needed to head home for naps and quiet time (secretly hoping nap time included Mommies and Daddies!).  Everyone had a blast and we were bummed that Ava had to miss out on all the fun. 

My niece, Peyton, is definitely the cutest witch I ever did see!  Ian kept asking me if she was a good witch or a bad witch.  I confirmed that she was a good witch, but that she could still cast a spell on us if she wanted to so we better behave:) 

 John and Ian were both tired after the parade and needed to hitch a ride!

Unfortunately, the nasty cold started to spread around the Andrews house on Sunday.  By Monday morning, it was in full force and Ian was the first victim.  Bummer!  I knew he truly wasn't feeling well when I told him if he stayed home with Daddy he would not be able to go trick or treating and he stayed in bed and agreed.  What?!  A sure sign of illness.  I didn't want him to miss out on all the Halloween fun (okay, truth is I am a royal procrastinator and just hadn't gotten around to carving the pumpkin yet) so last night we carved our pumpkin.  He helped carve some of it and picked out the shapes for the eyes and nose - in between his duty of passing out candy to the trick or treaters. 

Hoping everyone had a safe and Happy Halloween!