Well, Keeley got a ‘happy birthday’ and was put back down to sleep post nursing. After she got up again, Happy Birthday was sung and the morning commenced. Mostly, I ended up cleaning while she was down and taking care of her needs while she was up. Good thing I can multitask! Once daddy finally got ready, it was just in time to head out to the Halloween parade. We put her costume on her, but, no parade? We didn’t see one anyway, but we saw a large gathering of children where the parade was supposed to end. Strange, so of course, we got in line. The downtown trick or treating apparently starts whenever the parade ends? Anyway, only guess would be that the parade started earlier than the anticipated start time, so, as luck would have it, we had brought along her/my old pumpkin and trick or treated. Just up and down one street, but there were a couple of places that had treats she could have, a juice box (if she can manage the straw) and some goldfish crackers, we may even try a safe-t-sucker if she can sit still long enough. If not, I’ll be happy to finish it for her. At her age, she can’t eat most of the sweets, which is why we’re not taking her ‘real’ trick or treating next Saturday, instead we’re going to go visit some family and friends, in her costume, which is why you don’t get pictures today, sorry! I promise, though, we’ll update the blog either right before we go or after we get home, so you’ll still get your ‘treat’!
There was also a little carnival downtown in a banking plaza, it’s a really nice space and I’m glad they have it, because several things have been held there and they had a bounce house, carnival games and food. We looked around, voted on the pumpkin to win the carving contest, and decided we’d rather get her home and down for a nap (we nixed the morning nap in favor of a longer pm one so we could finalize party things) than wait in line 1/2 hour for a free hot dog.
Lots of people liked her costume, a lot of kids recognized it for what it was, which was fun. Most of the costumes we saw were pirates, princesses, and the top costumes out of the parenting/parents magazines, like a rubik’s cube, M&Ms, and ‘Mario Bros’. Definitely saw more homemade/thrown together costumes this year than we have in a long time, which is kind of neat. Some of the parents were dressed up to go with the kid’s theme, and I saw someone did the ‘copy off of your child’s lovey’, the child dressed as an elephant with a Dumbo satchel, which got stuffed with candy! Other then bitty babies, Keeley was the only true baby it seemed out there, most of the kids were 2-8, roughly.
Some ideas we contemplated, doing an M&M another time because it would either be a quick sew or a quick Iron-on M, copying her daddy’s military service uniform (we have his hat and could probably find his name patch), waiting a couple of years and doing a pirate (one kid had on a simple blue striped shirt and blue pants, a bandana, an eye patch over the bandana, and some stubble painted on with marker), another really awesome thing we saw was a kid who ended up ‘hands free’, so the parents weren’t carrying anything either, with a front pack or pouch on kind of like a reverse backpack, seems like a smart thing to do, no dropping anything, if you fall, it would be hard to lose the candy, etc. and you’d also be able to hold child’s hand when crossing the street. Also if you were at the carnival playing games, no bucket to set down or hold or forget, you just walk! Pretty neat and we may decide to incorporate that into a costume for Keeley in the coming years. Note to self “pirate chest”. tee hee. Further note to self, Indian headdress from real feathers collected on new property?
So that was our morning, we had a great time pre-nap and really felt a part of the community, along with getting great ideas for next year! Also after seeing the other costumes, taking in her age, and the fact that what we got for her was a little floppy, with her being in a stroller, it actually turned out really cute, guess my momma instincts aren’t so shabby after all!
