This year was the first year that Cooper actually UNDERSTOOD what Halloween really is all about to little kids - you get to dress up in a fun costume and get lots of free candy that your parents will actually let you eat.
So he was pretty pumped up about Halloween this year to say the least.
The day before Halloween we took him to the Trunk or Treat at Peavine. He had been wearing his Spiderman suit pretty much all day, running around the house and throwing spider webs everywhere.
He was in rare form when we arrived, and I was thankful for all of the inflatables that he could get in and jump some of that seemingly endless energy out. That is, until one of them collapsed while he was inside it. It went from being fully inflated to flat on top of the kids in seconds, and I pulled out as many kids as I could as quickly as possible. After pulling out all three Spidermen with blonde hair just like my son, two little girls, and one more boy who was not in costume, someone finally plugged it back in and reinflated it and we saw there were no more kids left inside. But it was quite scary to both me and Cooper, who was shouting "thank you for saving me mama! Thank you so much!" as I was pulling out the other children limb by limb. Needless to say, we won't be back in an astro jump for a little while.
We spent Halloween night at NanPa's house. But, on the way there, we made a stop at Mrs. Beth's house so Cooper could pay her a visit.
He has missed her so very much, and ran to the door, flew inside, and pretty much tackled her with a big hug. But once he spotted her bowl of candy that she was handing out, his attention shifted quickly from hugging her to seeing how many bags of M & M's he could get from her bowl to his bag.
We also met up with Addi while we were there, and the two of them spent some time flying around and spraying spiderwebs in Mrs. Beth's back yard. It was nice to see the two of them playing together, even if for just a few minutes.
I know Cooper misses spending his days with his gang at Beth's house, and even though he has started to enjoy pre-school much more, I know he misses his friends.
We finally made it to NanPa's, and Cooper was ready for more candy and a chance to Trick or Treat around a neighborhood for the first time. Colson, on the other hand, was oblivious to what was happening.
We dressed him up like a baby on his first Halloween, kept him warm and happy, and let him help his Nan pass out candy while we took Cooper trick or treating with his cousin Cora.
As Justin and I walked with our kids, we reminisced about all of the fun we had in the old neighborhood when we were growing up. It was eerily empty this year, which was so different from how it was when we were children. There would be trucks and trailers and lines of people trick or treating then. Now, less than half the houses in the neighborhood were even passing out candy.
We joked as we remembered how Justin would start preparing for Halloween sometime around May. He had more masks than a bank robber back then. He had a haunted house put together in our basement that I think was open for business 12 months out of the year. There was always scary music playing on Halloween through our front windows, cobwebs and spiders and anything else he could find to decorate with all over the porch, and Justin himself was usually dressed up to jump from the bushes, from behind the door, our out of the tree in our front yard to scare trick or treaters! Those were some great times and fun memories. It makes me kind of sad that we don't live in a neighborhood so Coop and Colson can have similar memories. But I am sure they will make enough of their own out here in the "country."
I definitely enjoyed watching Cooper and Cora make some memories together in the old neighborhood though.
The best house to Trick or Treat though was Nan and Pa's house. Always has been, always will be!
No matter how many times they knocked on that front door on Halloween night, they were always greeted with a smile and more candy. More and more candy.
Something tells me that Halloweens in the future with two boys are going to be quite interesting.
Who knows what they will want to be next year!
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