Halloween

Cole had an absolute blast this Halloween! This is the first year he has understood he was dressing up as something, that other people will be playing pretend also and that saying "trick or treat" will get him candy.

Even though he has never seen a show or any of the movies Cole is very into the Ninja Turtles.  We've had a couple ninja turtle paper masks, stickers, shirts and he got his face painted like a ninja turtle over the summer and loved it so I decided to go ahead and just order a whole costume!  I ordered it from zulily back in July (because their stuff normally takes FOREVER to get delivered) and it came in pretty quick, so Cole had plenty of time to try out the costume and decide he loved it!

When the week of Halloween finally arrived Cole was a pro at wearing his costume, mask and all!  A couple days before Halloween we headed out to Lake Arcadia to visit Storybook Forest. We debated between this and trick or treating at the zoo and we are so glad we did this!  Lake Arcadia is a state park and at one of the trailheads they set up a Halloween celebration for kids, complete with several campfires and food to cook over the fire!  Then you could walk the trail where they had scenes from SEVERAL children's stories set up along the path with actors handing out candy.  It was very well thought out, Cole particularly enjoyed Humpty Dumpty  (since he learned the whole song at kindermusik!), the swing in the yard of the Old Lady Who Lived In A Shoe and the Sword in the Stone!  At one point Cole lifted his mask to let some other kids know "hey, it's just me".

After the trail you could head to a clearing where they had carnival games set up and a hayride.  The lines were sooo long we decided to skip those activities and head to dinner.

For actual Halloween Ryan was in New Orleans for a bachelor party so Stevie joined up with Cole and me for some trick or treating.  We went over to a neighbor's house for chili, grilled cheese, socializing and then trick or treating.  Unfortunately, I did not get any pictures of all the kiddos but it was pretty adorable.  I'm really looking forward to Halloween next year with two kiddos!