Beau's First Halloween!

Halloween was different this year.  It was centered around watching our son take it all in for the very first time.  The glistening orange skin of a pumpkin, crisp autumn air with crunchy leaves under your feet, and all kinds of spooky, funny, and sweet costumes.  I have always loved Halloween.  My mom used to sing this song to us as kids, "Haaa-llo-ween, Haaa-llo-ween, Ghosts and Goblins and..."  I wish I could remember the rest! 

There were a couple of years, growing up, when my family would do a Haunted House for Halloween.  We had a three-car garage, so we would use one of them to section off a little area.  There was fake blood splashed over hanging sheets with a black light going and my brother's ready to scare (with creepy rubber masks on) unsuspecting children who came for candy.  My mom also boiled some macaroni and blind-folded the kids and told them to feel the "brains".  I remember going to every possible house on our block, especially the rich guy's house; he always passed out king-sized candy bars!  When we got home, my sisters and I would dump out all of our candy to compare and trade.  My mom would come to "inspect" for any tainted candy and take a few "almond joys" or "junior mints" for herself :)  We saved the, "Big Hunks" for our dad.  Then, I would stash all my candy in a big orange bowl, under my bed.  It was, coincidentally, the same bowl my mom would put next to us to barf in, when we were sick with the flu.  Oh man, the good old orange bowl.  The butterfingers and reese's were the first to go.  Then came the starburst, skittles, dots.  I think, by the time Christmas rolled around, there may have been a few smarties and those weird peanut butter-flavored taffy, rolled up in orange and black wax paper.  The quest for the candy was worth it!

We actually took Beau Trick-or-Treating with another couple and their son. It was fun to have a little wing-man family to not feel so guilty, knowing that we were going to eat all of Beau's candy, ha! Well, we actually ended up giving away a little portion of it to Trick-or-Treaters who stopped at our door, when we got home. That was also cool, since that was the first time I got to be a passer-outer. Anyway, Beau was a Tiger and Robbie and I were Zookeepers. Well....we were zookeepers for the ward party, but in street clothes for actual Trick-or-Treating. I had Beau all snapped into his BabyBjorn on my chest and he seemed to like it well enough. We had to finish things up around 7 because that's when Beau is about to turn into a Pumpkin! Pun intended. Here are a few pictures of our Halloween festivities and a recent family photo we had taken about a week ago.