Happy Halloween!

We like Halloween.

Our family enjoys dressing up, passing out candy & attending any & all fall parties, trunk & treats & festivals. We do not however, endorse the so-called meaning behind it. 

You can choose to celebrate fall or in its stead, focus on the negative side of Halloween being "Satan's day" with all the scary, gross, gory, demonic things that go along with it. 

As Christians, we choose to take advantage of the day in itself & use it for GOOD not focusing or "celebrating" the evil that most of our culture has made it out to be. I mean there IS some scary stuff out there...not gonna lie!

Our church usually does a Trunk or Treat which gives us the chance to meet families in our neighborhood, invite them to church & get their kids in our Kings Kids program. We pass out information, candy & tracks. This can be the best kind of evangelism. So many times our pastor goes door to door inviting families to church, & the rest of us are to be out witnessing as well! But this one day a year, alllll the kids & families come to us. On PURPOSE! It's a great opportunity to share the gospel & meet several people all at one time. Plus when you participate in church events, you usually don't have to deal with the scary side & it is a much safer place to take your kids. 

Last year was Greyson's first halloween to dress up. He was the CUTEST little puppy dog EVER! I did not have a hand in picking out his costume because he got it for Christmas from my inlaws, but it was the perfect idea to use in decorating our trunk.

He had his own dog house & doggy dish of candy =)

We did have a few "scary" costumes come through but they didn't seem to phase him at all. I think he was too little to grasp what that meant. 

Even though he wasn't a year old yet, he was still able to trick or treat. MOMS- since babies that young aren't generally into chocolate candy & all that, it is GREAT to encourage baby appropriate snacks & I was happy people of thought of his age in giving to him. He got those little yogurt melts that he loved, those fruit & veggie pouches, a long with little packs of gold fish & teddy grahams. He was able to enjoy the "loot" instead of mommy & daddy getting it all...because lets face it...pretty sure whatever your kid gets...you are going to get! I was glad he got to enjoy the spoils his first year =)

This year, we did NOT have a TorT at our church. It didn't feel quite the same, but we were totally fine with that because not only was it supposed to rain (which is did) but with Greyson being a little older, & more in tune with "scary" things, we felt like taking him to a few houses of close friends & family was better & a more controlled environment. 

I'm sure next year he will be able to grasp the concept a little better & it will be easier to explain to him why people dress up in scary things, & why we don't. 

Right now, he is pretty into 2 things. Thomas the tank engine (what little boy toddler isn't) & Curious George. I'm doing Thomas for his 2nd birthday party...so Curious George was the natural choice. 

We had planned to actually make DADDY Curious George & Greyson the Man in the Yellow Hat! LOL but the costumes were just easier to "make" in the right order. Matt already had the clothes, boots & dark hair. Greyson already had a monkey hat & I was just going to dress him in brown with a red CG t-shirt. The last week before Halloween, my friend Emily happened to mention she had a monkey costume we could borrow! It was perfect! All I did was buy $2 worth of yellow fleece & made a big yellow hat out of that, black ribbon & cardboard, plus a tie with black polka dots that I colored on with a marker. Easy Peasy. Greyson's was pretty self explanatory & FREE =) 

Pretty sure I'm into the man in the yellow hat & his little monkey is cute to boot!

We went to 6 or 7 houses of family & friends- he still made out like a bandit! G-mama even got him CG snacks! =)

Of course, Mimi was expecting a little Curious George too & planned for the occasion. He loves that little George & carried him around the rest of the night...he even made sure CG had a spot in his bed.

I felt a little left out not dressing up this year, so last minute before we left the house I decided to be a pumpkin. Bet no one saw that coming...I mean what else is there unless you take actual time to plan something!! 

We had fun...more importantly Greyson had fun...& I didn't have to explain what ghosts & goblins were....this year anyway!