Happy Halloween!!

Thankfully Cayel is still at a generally agreeable age where I can make a decision for him and he'll go along with it (notice the word "generally"). The Halloween costume decision being one of those . . . For his first Halloween he was an adorable little green dinosaur (he was only 6 months old so of course anything would have been adorable), last year he was a tiger (or as he thought, a "kitty") and (selfishly) this year, I gave him the option of a monkey, an elephant or a giraffe. I figured my days of putting him in a cute little animal costume are coming to an end so I'd better make the most out of it. Ever since Papa Mark went to South Africa last January and sent pictures of the "jungle animals" Cayel has been in LOVE with giraffes. So, giraffe it was! Next was the mission of finding the costume. I guess you could say I'm "thrifty." I looked at those Halloween stores and everything was $35-$40. Are you kidding me?!?!?! For a costume that a 2 year old will wear for an hour . . . He would be sleeping in it if I bought it for that price. Thank goodness for eBay where I found an adorable giraffe costume (from a sucker who paid that horrific price :) that is practically brand new.


We started our trick-or-treating excursion by going to Edgewood Vista (an Assisted Living facility in Spearfish). This is such a neat idea for kids - each resident sits outside their door and hands out little bags of candy. Cayel had a blast but started to get a little impatient because he wanted to eat a piece of everything that got put into his pumpkin. It didn't take long and his entire pumpkin was full. You'd think I would have been smart and called it quits, but being the die-hard "fun" mom I am, we went home, unloaded the pumpkin and hit the streets. We made pit stops at Grandpa and Grandma Horak's, Terri's (Cayel's daycare provider), Rene and Tahra's, Marti & Alvin's (my Bible Study leader) and even a few houses on our street.


After 2 hours of trick-or-treating we decided to retreat for the night. We retired Mr. Giraffe to "memory" bin with the other 2 Halloween costumes from previous years, had 1 last piece of candy, said our prayers and he was out!!

Mission Accomplished!!

Below are a few pictures of Cayel (more like daddy) carving his pumpkin. As you can tell by the picture of Cayel in tears, he did NOT like the slimy stuff inside the pumpkin. You would think being a 2 year old boy, he would dive right in and maybe even throw a little to make a mess?!?!?! But no, not my son - instead, he started crying and said he was tired and asked to go to bed. So, daddy carved the pumpkin while Cayel played near by (attentively watching). When it came time to light it, he was SO excited and gave daddy all the credit!