A VERY TODDLER HALLOWEEN

I love Halloween.

There, I said it. 

My husband thinks its hilarious and weird how much I love Halloween, but I don't care. I don't love the scary/spooky kind of Halloween, but rather the carved pumpkins, babies in fuzzy costumes, bowls of candy corn, and glittery decorations kind of Halloween. That's what I'm all about. So today I thought let's do some fun Halloween activities....as best we can. 

Painting Pumpkins

We bought some pumpkins from our friend's adoption fundraiser a few Sundays ago that I have been decorating with and I decided to let Charlie finger paint them today. He was very serious about it, you guys. He actually preferred using a paint brush over his fingers. Note taken for next time around. And he only tried to stick the paint brush in his mouth once, so I'd call that a success! 

Let's talk about toddlers and painting. I was sure to strip him down to his diaper, cover his high chair with plastic, and use non-toxic washable acrylic paint. What are your best tips for toddler + painting? I would love to do more of this in the future, and I'm sure there are better tips or hacks out there for some great painting, so be sure to send them my way.

Pausing to look at the doggie outside

I also decided to paint and carve one myself while Charlie played with the pumpkin lid and guts. I thought that would be a fun sensory activity for him. He touched the guts once and that was enough for him. For whatever reason he thought the lid was more interesting. I just carved a simple "C" for Charlie.

Halloween & Trick-Or-Treating

Months back, I had not even started to think about Charlie's costume for this year when my mom said, "You know, I think I have one of your costumes down in the basement." And sure enough it was perfect for Charlie! It was so fun for him to wear something that was his Mommy's.

It was super cold and I couldn't get him to say trick or treat like we had successfully practiced aalllllll week. Of course. We were out for maybe 20 minutes and visited a total of 6 houses but that's okay! He had fun, got to wear his costume, and all the sweet people we met on our walk just wanted to eat him up. He was genuinely more excited about wearing his mittens than he was getting candy or wearing a costume. Oh, toddlers are the best!

On a mission for some treats

"Wait, I'm pretty sure I heard another doggie."

As a final thank you if you made it to the end of this very long post, here is yours truly Halloween '95 reppin the OG pumpkin outfit. 

I hope you all had a Happy Halloween!

THE PUMPKIN PATCH

Last Saturday the forecast called for rain, but we had a sunny enough morning to decide last minute to go to the zoo for their pumpkin festival!

Cosley Zoo is a small zoo nearby with all kinds of farm animals, bobcats, foxes, owls, hawks, rabbits, and a duck pond. Charlie loves it, and it's free for Wheaton residents - so it's one of our favorite outings. This was Daddy's first time going to the zoo with us!

There were piles of pumpkins big and small, a mound of hay bales, and a few kiddie rides. Charlie was only interested in the pumpkins for about a half a second and then he spotted it. THE RIDES. If this kid ever gets a wiff of something fun happening nearby, he will sniff it out. He is all about F-U-N.

After a few minutes of watching him stare longingly at the trade ride, Samuel and I looked at each other knowing we had to get him a ticket. It was his first ride!!! I can't believe he's already old enough to go on a kiddie ride. Time, slow down! I was pretty confident he would love riding the train. But I will admit I got a little worried when the train pulled away and he looked backed with wide eyes and said, "Dada!?" But by the end of one time around the loop, he realized he loved it! What a big boy.

Here are some pictures from our day. Enjoy Charlie's very wind-blown hair.  😆 

This is when it happened. 

Me: Charlie, look at these fun pumpkins!

Charlie: OMG RIDES, MOM

Happy October, y'all!