02 November 2011

Anders' "First" Halloween

Despite this being Anders' third Halloween, I would venture to say that this was his first true Halloween celebration. He picked the jack-o-lantern designs, chose his own costume, and trick-or-treated through The Gorge. He is no baby anymore!

Brachiosaurus Jack-o-Lantern
I think every little boy has a fascination with dinosaurs, and Anders is no exception. So straight out of the blue one day he stated that he wanted a Brachiosaurus jack-o-lantern. We weren't talking about pumpkins or dinosaurs at the time, so it really was out of nowhere. It makes me wonder what else he has going on in that head of his!

For some strange reason, it was difficult to find a ready made jack-o-lantern stencil to meet the request. But with a little creativity on Corinne's part, she created a great pattern! (And since she was already doing one dinosaur, why not two? She chose one of its late Jurassic contemporaries, the Stegasaurus, as a companion piece.)


Best Brachiosaurus and Stegosaurus jack-o-lanterns ever

We let Anders use a crayon to draw a face on a third pumpkin. It took some "interpretation" of his marks to cut out a face, but I like it.


Astronaut?
Corinne and I are usually pretty last minute about Halloween costumes, but this year we were the lucky recipients of an astronaut hand-me-down costume from Zak. Perfect! Problem solved, right? Wrong.

About two weeks before Halloween, Anders stated that he wanted to be a firefighter. All of our attempts to convince him otherwise failed miserably. We even brought out the astronaut costume to show him. A few hours later (again, when we weren't even talking about costumes) I asked him an open-ended "what do you think, Anders?" question. His answer was clear: "I think that astronaut costume should be a firefighter costume."

Yellow raincoat + hat + (black boots X white reflective duct tape) + ping pong ball shooter = fire fighter!

We picked Anders up from daycare early on Monday afternoon and made a few office trick-or-treat stops before heading back to downtown White Salmon for some small town trick-or-treating with the Fluits.


Spy and Firefighter


Public servant, on the job


Is that a fire whistle that I hear?

We even stopped in to the local volunteer firehouse. Unfortunately, Anders was too shy to take advantage of the opportunity to sit in a fire truck. Too bad for us, since we missed a great photo opportunity!

We did capture a sample of "Anders, the Singing Firefighter."


It didn't take very long for Anders to get the hang of it: "Trick-or-treat" -> "Thank you" -> "Happy Halloween!" while waving arm violently.


Zak, Daniel, and Anders awaiting candy.
You can practically see the anticipation on their faces!

After an hour or so trick-or-treating downtown, we turned the tables and had the kids man the door at the Fluits while the adults ate dinner.



Happy Halloween!

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders
1 November 2011

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