When a Shark and Hippo go out on the town

It was a dark and stormy night.....Oh wait! We are getting ahead of ourselves. Let's start at the beginning.

Before we took Joel (and Micah) out trick or treating, we decided that we should probably give Joel a lesson in trick or treating and how it works. We had him practise knocking on the door, saying trick or treat (ahem....that didn't work. It morphed into signing "please"), receiving candy and then saying (ahem, sighing) thank-you. He would then move onto another door in our house and try it again. But not before eating an Easter egg chocolate complete with tin foil wrapper. Yuck!

Since the weather was so "BC like," we decided that we would join the crowds at the mall for trick or treating in case the rain didn't stop or the kids blew a gasket! Joel got the hang of it pretty quick (probably thanks to our wonderful lesson). He was super excited to get the candy and would shove pieces into his mouth, wrapper and all! We had to rescue quite a few pieces of plastic. We came home with a bucket full of candy between the two boys.

Micah pretty much just sat in the stroller the whole time. Occasionally letting out a little yelp. "Mom! Dad! My hippo head is covering my entire face! Rescue me please!"

Joel got to the doors of the mall, away from the crowds, promptly sat down and ate some candy that he had waited so patiently for. He sure enjoyed it!

Later that night, we brave the torrents of rain and took the kids out trick or treating. We drove to the one Hallmark and decided that we would walk to the other and then go home, perhaps hitting a few houses in between, depending on how Joel (and Micah) were doing. We knew that the residents of Hallmark gave out bags of candy, so hitting up the two buildings would give enough candy for Joel (ahem...us) to enjoy in the coming days. Everything else would be extra!

Well, Joel really enjoyed the whole process. We carried him between houses (it was too wet to walk). About 20 feet from the door, Joel would demand his bucket in exchange for the glow stick he was carrying. Once we got up to the door and Dan rang the door bell, Joel would knock on the door. Once they opened the door, he would sign "please" to the resident. Occasionally, he would bark at their dog or point and grunt at their ceiling fans. That sure boosted his cuteness factor. They would give him his candy and he would sign "thank-you." Which most people mistook him for blowing kisses. Walking away, he would give Dan the candy bucket back and demand the glow stick. That was pretty much the routine for EVERY house we hit. All 20 of 'em.
I held Micah the entire time in his little hippo costume that was a bit too small. Every couple of houses I would have to pull it down. The buttons at the legs burst (he is way too long)  and the legs were at his waist. Needless to say, he was soaked. But he didn't seem to mind. Which is pretty amazing considering, the head of the hippo was too large for his tiny scalp and would envelope his entire head. Really, I could have been carrying around a pillow stuffed hippo and you wouldn't have been able to tell the difference. You really couldn't see Micah at all...except his legs sticking out. When we got to houses, I would have to take the hippo head off just so that people could see his cute little face!

Which brings me to my next point. When did Halloween go on steroids? What ever happened to traipsing from house to house for one little mini chocolate bar? The times have changed my friends. Now we get two bags of chips and a couple chocolate bars at ONE house. Or a full sized chocolate bar. Seriously, we ended up with 4 large chocolate bars, 11 bags of chips and at least a box of mini chocolates from 20 houses!!!! Its crazy! Yummy....but crazy.We had to empty their little buckets into the stroller numerous times. One time, Dan and I were handing off buckets and there was a little mishap. We dropped the bucket! We watched in horror as the candy floated away down side of the street towards the storm drain. We frantically had to pick it up before it went down to the abyss. Yes, it was raining that hard. When we got home, we were all drenched. The rain even soaked the boys to the skin, right through their precious costumes!

Micah enjoys his post Halloween bag of chips. All in a days work eh?
One final note: Joel's shark costume we bought last year and got another year out of it. The hippo? A wonderful last minute gift. On the Monday before Halloween, I went to get my blood check at the lab. Every six weeks since I got pregnant with Joel and then Micah, I have had to get my thyroid levels checked.  Needless to say, I know the blood donor ladies very well. Jen even has a son the same age as Joel! When Jen asked me what the boys were going to be for Halloween, I could only say that Joel was going to be a shark. I thought I might throw a kilt on Micah or something. She immediately offered the Hippo costume. I went and picked it up from her the next morning and told her I would bring it back later that week. She told me that I should keep it and pass it on when I was done with it. What an awesome gift of generosity! Thanks Jen!

All in all, a wonderful day. Even the pouring rain added another layer of adventure to the day.