Halloween

Halloween last Saturday was Alyce's 4th.  The first one she was only 4 days old so she was a newborn, the second she wore a Tigger costume, the third she was a cowgirl, and this year she was a princess.  This year had a lot of firsts for Alyce.  The was the first year that she had an opinion on what her costume would be (a princess), she knew that she would get candy from houses and was excited about it, and she went trick or treating with friends.

Saturday was Alyce's second time wearing her costume.  Two days before at school the kids were encouraged to wear their costumes.  The night before Mom got to flex her domestic muscle by hemming Alyce's princess costume.  Mom did a really good job given that she only had a needle and thread to work with.  However, even the best sewing job won't hold up to the onslaught that is children and Alyce tore out the hem by the end of the day.  Before Alyce got back into her dress on Saturday Mom fixed it again and this time it held the entire evening.

Trick or treating began down the street at our neighbor's house Jess and Steve's.  They were throwing a party and almost the entire block was in attendance.  Our whole family loaded up the wagon, grabbed the candy and the kids, and joined the festivities.  After Mom got settled with Luke Alyce and I set about hitting the houses in the neighborhood.  This was a first for me too, this was the first time I did the "dad" thing by hanging out with the other dads, drinking beer, and supervising the kids going from house to house.  Alyce being one of the youngest kids in the group was usually bringing up the rear but she patiently waited her turn at each door and received more candy then she could ever eat.  I think she leveraged her cuteness to score more treats.  All of the other kids in the group would get a single handful of candy and so would Alyce, however, Alyce was a bit slow to turn and join group racing to the next house.  Before turning away Alyce would lock eyes with the people at the door and they would say "you can have another handful" and drop another handful of candy in her bag. She learns fast.

We went up and down the street and even up the hill a bit but I could tell that Alyce was slowing down and getting a bit cold.  With her bag full we turned around and headed to the party.  After some warm food and a few pieces of candy we left Alyce to her own devices.  She eventually focused on the pumpkin pounding station.  The pumpkin pounding station is a pretty neat setup.  You take the pumpkins from the night with the candles extinguished, grab some golf tees and a kids hammer, and smash the golf tees into the pumpkin.  You would think that something like that would be entertaining for 10 minutes tops.  Alyce was banging golf tees into a pumpkin for probably an hour.

As the evening drew on we started to get cold and the kids were getting tired.  We bid our neighbors goodnight and whisked our kids off to bed.  It was a good Halloween; good weather, low stress, and lots of fun.