BOO!
Yes... Halloween has come & gone. I've been editing photos galore and am finally ready to share our adventure!
This year the costumes were planned as follows: Juliet, mermaid. Sam, Pirate. So I made Juliet a mermaid costume (which was my first ever attempt at using a sewing machine) which turned out a little something like this...
Not a success by my standards but Juliet was happy so hip hip hooray. Off she went to school Halloween morning dressed in her mermaid costume. It only took until lunch before the school called saying that Juliet tripped on the concrete & smashed her head... thanks, of course, to the lack of mobility in the tail of her mermaid compounded by the fact that no 4 year old can walk anywhere. Oops. Needless to say... we opted for a costume change before heading out for the night. Et voila! The princess & the pirate:
I've always wanted my kids Halloween experience to be just as fun and just as cool as mine was. My hometown rocked Halloween. Where we live now.... not so much. I HATE how commercial Halloween has become and I hate even more the lack of enthusiasm in our neighbourhood. Most of our neighbours are old and many of them turn out the lights and don't participate. Those who do participate do a crappy job. Numerous houses don't even have real pumpkins!!! I had been brainstorming ideas on how we could make this year better... drive to a different area of town... walk in another direction. Then my friend Ashley invited us out to the country to participate in their Halloween fun... a hay wagon ride. Ah-ma-zing.
Ashley's best friend Cheryl lives on a farm and each year for Halloween they decorate & hitch up their hay wagon for a night full of good 'ol country trick or treatin'. She sends out a newsletter to the neighbours alerting them to expect about 30 kids and to shut their lights if they don't want to participate. With a 5 o'clock start time (perfect if you ask me!) off we went to try and find our new Halloween tradition. Did we find it? You bet your ass we did.
The trick or treating along the stretch of road the farm is on could never have been accomplished on foot. About 27 enthusiastic kids and a dozen or so adults piled onto the wagon complete with lights, blankets & of course, hot chocolate. Off we went down the road where the tractor stopped at every house, the kids piled out down a step ladder, trick or treated and piled back on. This repeated itself for a 2+ hour adventure of hay wagon trick or treating. No kids got tired. No kids got cold. No kids complained. Fun to be had by all... brilliant. One of the later houses even had a table of hot chocolate set out for us. It was so much fun I had no problem abandoning my idea that Halloween for my kids would be like it was for me. No way. We have a new tradition now, and its a fabulous one. The only suggested improvement came from Sam... "Mom, next year can I bring a pillow case because my bag is over flowing!"
Yes... Halloween has come & gone. I've been editing photos galore and am finally ready to share our adventure!
This year the costumes were planned as follows: Juliet, mermaid. Sam, Pirate. So I made Juliet a mermaid costume (which was my first ever attempt at using a sewing machine) which turned out a little something like this...
Not a success by my standards but Juliet was happy so hip hip hooray. Off she went to school Halloween morning dressed in her mermaid costume. It only took until lunch before the school called saying that Juliet tripped on the concrete & smashed her head... thanks, of course, to the lack of mobility in the tail of her mermaid compounded by the fact that no 4 year old can walk anywhere. Oops. Needless to say... we opted for a costume change before heading out for the night. Et voila! The princess & the pirate:
Ashley's best friend Cheryl lives on a farm and each year for Halloween they decorate & hitch up their hay wagon for a night full of good 'ol country trick or treatin'. She sends out a newsletter to the neighbours alerting them to expect about 30 kids and to shut their lights if they don't want to participate. With a 5 o'clock start time (perfect if you ask me!) off we went to try and find our new Halloween tradition. Did we find it? You bet your ass we did.
The trick or treating along the stretch of road the farm is on could never have been accomplished on foot. About 27 enthusiastic kids and a dozen or so adults piled onto the wagon complete with lights, blankets & of course, hot chocolate. Off we went down the road where the tractor stopped at every house, the kids piled out down a step ladder, trick or treated and piled back on. This repeated itself for a 2+ hour adventure of hay wagon trick or treating. No kids got tired. No kids got cold. No kids complained. Fun to be had by all... brilliant. One of the later houses even had a table of hot chocolate set out for us. It was so much fun I had no problem abandoning my idea that Halloween for my kids would be like it was for me. No way. We have a new tradition now, and its a fabulous one. The only suggested improvement came from Sam... "Mom, next year can I bring a pillow case because my bag is over flowing!"
fabulous...hope I get to be there one year!!!! xoxo
ReplyDeleteI love this! Thanks for capturing our wonderful night in pictures. I am glad you guys enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteOk, seriously... I can't see anything in those pictures.
ReplyDelete@ Steph... What do you mean you can't see anything in the pictures... are you blind??
ReplyDeleteI am so glad you could join us for our halloween tradition. You are an official member of the Yonge Mills Halloween Wagon Ride. Great pictures! You captured the night splendidly.
ReplyDeleteThey're so small and that picture of Juliet's costume has that weird filter on it. You can't see anything.
ReplyDelete