No I didn’t misspell the title of this post…That is how Jacob prefers to say Halloween.  I am still way behind and have lots of catching up to do, but before I can even think about picking up my camera for the Christmas season, I need to get the Halloween pictures up.  So here goes.

You may remember that Jacob had a cast on his leg for Halloween last year, because of that, we still dressed up but didn’t really do the whole trick or treating thing.  This year however, he spent the entire month of October gearing up for the big event.  He kept practicing by closing all the doors in the house and telling us to knock on them and when he opened (answered) the door he would yell trick or treat! Yes, it was a little bit backwards, but he was having so much fun.  I kept reminding him that after he got a treat he needed to say thank you, so while driving or walking or any time when he jabbers away he would recite the trick or treating scenario in preparation for the big day…We go up to the door and ring the doorbell, when they open the door we say trick or treat, they give us candy and we say thank you!

One of his favorite things to do during the month of October was go to Home Depot to look at all the Hal-Whoa-een decorations. We did buy some tombstones and skulls to put in our yard, however, they never made it outside since Jacob decided that they were his new favorite toys.  He carried them around the house, held them while watching TV, set them up on the couch in his room while playing and constantly talked about them.

He is one of those kids who likes to be scared. If something scares him he will cling to us, bury his face in our shoulder then with a sideways peek ask that whatever was scaring him to happen again. There was a skull hanging on the wall next to the front door at a Halloween party we were at.  It had motion sensors in the eyes so anytime someone walked by the eyes lit up and the mouth started opening and closing.  Jacob was scared of it but fascinated at the same time, he would not leave the skull and spent quite some time watching it.  By the end of the party when it came time for us to leave, he waved goodbye to the skull as we walked out the door and said “good to see you!”  like it was an old friend of his. And to this day he still talks about the skull at the party.

All of his excitement was rubbing off on us and knowing that there were lots of families in our new neighborhood, we had a feeling that it was going to be fun. We started off the celebration with pumpkin carving.  First daddy helped with cutting out the top and scooping out all the seeds.

My smiley boy 🙂

And my ‘mom don’t take my picture’ boy

Then it was moms turn to talk about how we wanted to carve the faces and what shapes he wanted to use. 

And I love a love affair with the giant pepper tree on the golf course behind our house and the way the light filters through it in the late afternoon, so you can expect to see it a lot in the pictures I take in our backyard!

Success!

When trying to figure out a costume for Jacob we kept showing him costumes that were given to us, but he wasn’t really excited about Spider-man or pirates.  Knowing about his love for trains and how he is always pointing out the train conductor in the books and shows, I got him a train conductor costume.  When I showed it to him, he was so excited and wanted to put it on right away.  So we had a skeleton and a train conductor this year.  When trying to get a picture of them Jacob had to mess with the pumpkins until he was satisfied with their placement.

Then he started tickling his brother and they spent a few minutes giggling together

Then finally they both looked at the camera and smiled!

We got good use out of that costume.  First, on the Thursday before Halloween he had a costume parade and party at school.

Then on Friday, we visited my old office and daddy’s office to go trick or treating.  That night we went to our friend’s annual Halloween party, where we dressed up as the Robertson family from Duck Dynasty.

The morning of Halloween, after daddy made pumpkin pancakes, we took our train conductor and mummy (Dylan had several Halloween outfits) to trick or treat at Oma’s house.

That evening we set out with some friends in our neighborhood for Jacob’s first real trick or treating experience.  It didn’t take him long, he caught on really quick on what to do.  By the time we got home, he had quite the stash!

I took a quick look back on last years Halloween post, and I can’t believe how much Jacob has changed in just a year!