A Halloween-athon

Halloween was a series of events for us in Vermont, which basically meant I had to wrestle my newly independent toddler into a lion costume not once, not twice, but three times, and bring him to a costume party way past his bedtime. Not that he complained--in fact, you would think that this kid would rock his Old Navy performance fleece lion costume all day every day if there was an easier way to change his diaper. He didn't care a bit!

So Halloween Event #1: Jax in costume at his Music Together class. This was just a gentle introduction to the art of lion-izing him, so I only made him wear the sweatshirt. But man was he a hit!! I think he loved it because it made him the center of attention--don't let him fool you. He really loves it.

So that was a tame intro to Halloween. That was Thursday morning. Thursday night we were invited to an adult Halloween party at Katharine and Will's, our buddies up here in the Upper Valley, which we gladly accepted for some quality grown-up time. Plus, Jax's friends Harper and Stella were there so it made our first attempt at taking Jax somewhere post-bedtime a little easier. Here he is in his skeleton pj's, practicing his zombie stare:

And me as a gas station attendant with my little tired guy:

 JDubbs was a frat boy (no pictures, sadly), and even brought some Natty Light beer with him to stay in character. Classy!

Then came Saturday. Halloween. The main event we had all been waiting for. And seriously, how cute is he??

This was the face he would make when we'd say, Roar! I guess that was his most bad-ass lion look.

We went trick-or-treating at Nana and Papa's house......then headed to the Lebanon Fire House where our aforementioned friend Will works as a fireman. We thought it was going to be some small town affair. Oh, no. The line was around the block by the time we got there--and we were on time!

 Jax entertained himself by looking at the traffic and the firetrucks.

Sadly, before we were halfway up the line, it started to rain, so we and our friends Matt, Sara, and Stella ran over to our favorite pub for some dinner and pints (of soda for me, of course).


It actually worked out well because after dinner, we went back to the firehouse and got to hang out with our friends without all the people. Here is Jax with Stella (dressed as Troy Palomalu) and Harper (the bee), his two bestest friends. Harper's dad is the one who works at the firehouse, so we had behind-the-scene hookups. Basically we got to skip the line :)

Phew! Is the Halloween-athon over yet?? Not quite!

Event #3: Halloween Party for 4th Trimester moms (aka the Mommy group I used to go to every Thursday). One of the moms rented the community center and all the kids got together for one gigantic photo op. At 1 pm (aka naptime) the day after daylight savings. GRUMPY Jax. He had had enough of Halloween-athon. I think he was getting antsy to get home and check his fantasy football team, actually.

So here he is with his best guy friends, Drew, Matt, and Colby. He was such a grump, he ruined the group shot. Oh well, who can blame him? It was a marathon of Halloween celebration, and the poor thing was only introduced to sugar last week!

A
ll in all it was a wonderful time, but gosh were we glad it was over! Imagine next year with a two-year-old and a five-month-old! I'm getting exhausted just thinking about it!

Happy Halloween everyone!