The Great Pumpkin

I have to admit, having a kid makes Halloween way more fun. I didn't grow up doing Halloween. We did other fun fall stuff, but Halloween just wasn't part of our "thing" (more about that here and here). Since Noah was born, we've definitely had some fun with it though. Something about dressing your kid up in a really cute costume, no matter how much they may hate it, makes the holiday so worth celebrating.

This year, we had a bit of a dilemma. I wanted Noah to dress up as one thing, Brad another. Because of Noah's love for his blue blanket, and his uncanny resemblance in general, my vote was to dress him up as Linus from Peanuts. Brad wanted him to be Troy Polomalu from the Steelers. He has the jersey, so it made perfect sense to him. We kept going back and forth, one discussion happening in the middle of the toddler clothing section at Target. A mom overheard our conversation and voted for Linus. Her reasoning was that he can be a Steelers player every year for as long as he wants, but the fact that he's got the blanket? Now would be the time to take advantage. :)

Turns out, we ended up with a good compromise. The next town over had a Halloween bash Saturday night, so Noah and Brad went as Steelers players, while I was one of their fans.

We ran into a few locals that really go all out. Actually, as it turns out, those comic book fans that go to Comic Con and all those other Cons? Halloween is their holiday. They already have costumes ready to go. Like these guys. They made their own Ghostbusters costumes, complete with the gear, and they also made the CAR! How impressive is that??

We also ran into a Storm Trooper, and when Brad asked if we could take his picture with him, he told Brad they'd have to change their jerseys first. :)

Another guy also saw us passing by and said loudly in our direction, "Tom Brady is the best quarterback EVER". He was just teasing, of course. But we did see one other guy decked out in Steelers, so we definitely aren't the only fans in town.



And for the first time, Brad finally understood why I don't really like the scary/gory part of Halloween. He naturally found himself shielding Noah from the costumes and images that could possibly freak him out. Noah was a little overwhelmed by it all. He kept looking around with this bewildered "what the heck are these people doing?" look on his face. Brad tried to put him down a couple of times, but Noah would just turn around and raise his arms up for his daddy to pick him up again. Poor thing.
After the town party, we headed on down to visit grandparents, so they could see Noah dressed up. Our nephew Kalyb saw us all adorned in everything Steelers, so he ran and changed into his too.

(unfortunately, this was the best one we got. Noah looks like he's offering me a bite of his cracker...)

So tonight, Noah got to be Linus!

I think he looked more cartoon-like with the white shirt underneath, but Brad insisted he'd get too cold without something else on. Not wanting to totally ruin the costume, he decided the best option was to put a black sweatshirt on underneath. Which left us explaining to everyone who he was.

Oh well.

This may be the most depressing Halloween photo ever...

He looks completely bewildered and apathetic to the whole thing.

Poor little guy had no idea what everyone was doing and why people kept putting stuff in his bucket.

So far, Noah has never really tasted candy. The closest he's gotten is chocolate chips.

But for tonight, I let him have his very first sucker. I'd say he was a fan. He had blue all over his mouth for the rest of the night, and he finally was getting the idea that all of this craziness was supposed to be fun! :)

(oh. see that black thing he's holding in his hand? that's dirt. such a boy...)

Dodger celebrated too.

We don't normally do costumes for the pups, but Brad saw this one and thought of Dodger.

After we got back, we sat out on the porch and watched The Great Pumpkin with Noah, while we handed out candy.

We got a few trick-or-treaters who weren't wearing any costumes.

In years past, we would give kids who didn't dress up a hard time. We figured if you're too cool to dress up, then you're too cool to go trick-or-treating.

But see, here's the thing. I mentioned this to Brad tonight, and of course, he felt awful.

Right behind our neighborhood is an area that's a little... less fortunate. The families look like they struggle to survive, most of them living in trailers or extremely small mill homes. Kids can often be seen wondering around without shirts or shoes on.

And I wonder if the reason these kids aren't in costumes is because their families couldn't afford them? You know which ones are from that area, because they all come trick-or-treating together. And I recognized a couple. Every now and then, one would be wearing a mask or face paint or some sort of inexpensive accessory, just so they had on something. And sure, you could say they could be creative, but what if the parents wouldn't help them? So I guess this is me saying to think twice before giving "those kids" a hard time.

Because that 10 year old may be looking at everyone else in their scary wolf masks and Buzz Lightyear outfits, wishing they had something on besides jeans and an oversized sweatshirt.

Sorry, didn't mean to make this depressing. Sheesh, I just turned into a debbie downer, didn't I??

Anyway, it was just a thought. I know we were guilty of assuming these kids were just lazy or thought they were too cool, and the alternative just dawned on me tonight.

Anyways...

I hope everyone had a spectacular night, whether you went parading around the neighborhood or attended a local Fall Fest or hid in the back of the house with all the lights turned off. ;)

Happy Halloween!