Life with the Lynchs: Halloween 2010

I love Halloween!!!! I’m not sure if I loved it this much as a child. What I do know is I fell in love with the holiday again working at St. Jude. Seeing how excited all the kids got when the hospital was decorated from head to toe just made my day. Now that I have kids it has grown even more. I can’t believe that this is Ella Catherine’s 4th time dressing up. I take full responsibility for her first 3 costumes. She didn’t really understand what was going on those first two years and last year by the time she realized she was already knocking on doors getting candy. By that time she could have been wearing a paper bag and she wouldn’t have cared a bit as long as the candy kept rolling in. This year was different. This year she picked out her own costume…kind of. Matt and I had a princess dress made for her for her birthday. She LOVES the dress and wears it anytime she can. So when we asked her what she wanted to be for Halloween it was not too surprising that she wanted to be a princess and wear her “big sparkle dress” as she calls it. Carter is a different story. I was happily still able to pick out his costume. I didn’t think I would be able to find anything as cute as his costume last year, but I was wrong!!! When I saw the fly fisherman costume that was all she wrote. It was perfect! I wasn’t too concerned about him wearing it because he is usually so easy going. Well he wasn’t so easy going with the costume on Friday evening as we were getting dressed to meet the Sams for at the ghouls at Grassmere (Nashville Zoo). He was NOT happy about the boots. I had to get him dressed in stages. I finally realized that he was just really hungry and as I have stated before he becomes a different kid when he is hungry. By the time Matt got home from work he was ok with the costume and was well fed and ready to go!

We didn’t get to the ZOO as early as we would have liked and so we didn’t get to visit with the Sams for too long before the Sams boys were ready to head to the house. They had already done the trick or treat trail so we played some in the play area before they left. Our little princess however, was not about to leave without trick or treating. So, we had fun taking her around the path and seeing all the costumes. The little fly fisherman was a trouper and watched without so much as a peep from his stroller.

Sunday was the official trick or treat night. We got the kids dressed up again, no complaints this time. The plan was to go visit a few neighbors and then head back to the house to hand out candy. We set out on foot down the hill and went to about 8 houses when Matt realized that this was going to be a longer trick or treating trip and decided to go get the truck. For those of you who have seen our neighborhood you completely understand the truck, for those of you who have yet to visit we would love to have you! Just know that our neighborhood is EXTREMELY hilly. No guilt in eating trick or treat candy as you definitely burn it off walking from house to house. Even driving, the driveways and the front steps are a workout. Anyway, our little cul de sac wasn’t very busy and I was somewhat disappointed as I knew we had moved to a neighborhood filled with kids. Well, when we drove around the corner to the main drive and there were people everywhere. Several people had hayrides taking the kids trick or treating, houses were decorated inside and out and even the parents were dressed up. I forsee a hayride next year. :) Carter stayed in the truck with Matt and Ella Catherine and I took off running from house to house. It was soooo much fun. It is hard to say who had more fun.

When Matt went back to get the truck he set our candy out on the front porch for the kids to grab themselves. I was fully expecting the candy to be all gone when we got home, but was surprised to find a little still left. Someone did move the container from the top of the steps to the bottom though. I’m telling you the stairs are a killer. I honestly think Ella Catherine had as much fun if not more handing out candy as she did trick or treating. She sat in the rocker on the front porch and waited patiently for someone to come. While they waited, she and Carter played trick or treating. She would give him a piece of candy and he would run inside and go put it in his pumpkin. It was precious!
I thought I’d take a trip down memory lane and post pictures of past costumes as well. Enjoy!