Time for blogging is at a minimum these days so I'll try to document all our Halloween activities by breaking things up into three parts (you did read the title, right?). It works out great, since it was over three days! First there was the trick-or-treating at the mall experience on Thursday, next was pumpkin carving on Friday, and then finally the big day itself on Saturday.
Halloween Part 1: hanging at the mall with every child under the age of 12 in State College
So if you don't recall, Hayden is two and Eliza is 5 weeks old. Not exactly the best ages for a rollicking good round of trick-or-treating on Halloween. Nonetheless, Hayden is at an age where I thought we should introduce her to the concept. She liked her costume when she tried it on a couple weeks ago. (a costume chosen for her by her parents because we found it for super cheap at a yard sale - what a great buy!)
But taking a two year old around to houses to beg for candy seems a bit pathetic. More a reflection of the parent's desire for candy, than the child's interest in the holiday, especially when you don't really know anyone in your neighborhood all that well, as is the case for us. But when I saw there was trick-or-treating at the mall, I thought that might be a good venue to introduce trick-or-treating. Indoors, easy walk-a-bility and not even on Halloween so we could still be home on the big day to give out candy.
We invited Noah and family to join us and even went out for dinner ahead of time. For the record, keeping two toddlers entertained while waiting for dinner was super fun. A big shout out of appreciation for Mandy who bore the brunt of keeping Hayden and Noah occupied because both of them kept climbing over her, switching places, trying to draw on each other's placemats. Thanks Mandy! So we did dinner, which was fine but really not all that great. (but yeah for no dishes to wash afterwards!), and then we headed to the mall.
Now I should explain that the State College mall is not my favorite place in the world. I'm not really that big a shopper, but I just can't ever find ANYTHING at this mall. And when we've gone, it's never really been all that crowded. For the trick-or-treating, I'm not sure what I expected but I didn't think it would be all that busy. So we were just a bit surprised to roll up to the mall, a half hour into the trick-or-treating time, to have trouble finding ANY place to park. Not something close but any parking space at all! Eventually we did, many spaces away from the mall itself and there was a quick change in the parking lot into costumes. Noah assumed his role as fire fighter and Hayden was transformed into a dragon. We then headed towards THE MALL.
And when we got inside, things were even more overwhelming that the parking lot. There were people and children EVERYWHERE!!! There seemed to be a line of children and parents snaking along the store fronts for the whole mall. Tons of people. We just sort of jumped into a lull of people and joined the flow. Both Hayden and Noah carried their own treat bags and were okay walking with the flow of traffic. Don't they look cute in costume?!!!
Most stores had people in front, usually in costume, handing out candy. Hayden wasn't quite sure what to make of it, until she realized they were giving something to her. Then she swaggered around in her dragon costume, walking up to each person and saying trick-or-treat under Jason's prompting. Here she and Noah, go up to the woman at Sears.
We skipped around a little bit, avoiding a couple places where the line was really backed up. (were the pretzel people really giving away something so great? We'll never know.) There was a bit of herding going on, trying to keep Hayden and Noah focused on the trick-or-treating and not on the other distractions (e.g. the little coin-operated rides) that can be found in the mall.
We had almost made it around half the mall when Hayden suddenly realized she was getting candy, and maybe she could eat some of it. So we took a short snack break, which stretched into a long snack break as Hayden kept requesting more, each time we saw a bench. (for the record, she got one small piece of a Hershey's bar.)
Soon the kids were starting to show signs of tiredness so we hit a couple more stores and called it a night. We made it around half the mall. Not too bad for a two two-year-olds! Eliza slept soundly in her carrier the whole time, with several people commenting on her pumpkin hat. Hayden probably would have kept going a little longer, but she was willing to head home with the promise of candy in the car. She got a lollipop which she crunched instead of licked. It was a great introduction to trick-or-treating.
PS: some funny things from the evening: 1) Jason continually trying to put Hayden's dragon head hood on, and Hayden continually tossing it back. 2) the hand train that appeared anytime we walked some place. Mandy held Noah's hand who held Hayden's hand who held Scott's hand... 3) ordering Hayden a kid's meal - mac-n-cheese plus applesauce - and she touched none of the mac and cheese and just ate the applesauce, which turned out to be 'extra' (and it was only pre-packaged applesauce!) luckily they didn't charge us when I asked about it. read the fine print! 4) Hayden stepping backwards when surprised by the Italian cartoon chef (a costume) at the pizza place, only to pratically run forward when she realized he was handing out candy. What some kids will do for a treat! 5) trying to identify old movie stars as the kids asked "who's that?" on the wall. (there were lots on the wall by our booth). And then they decided to label everyone "doo-doo" or "dee-dee" and shriek with laughter.
