Halloween 2008

For some reason time seems to be in short supply this time of year. I am the pumpkin carver of the family. I usually do several. However, we only bought one pumpkin this year, and the poor thing sat in the foyer until I realized it was Halloween afternoon and I had not carved it yet! Oliver was still taking his nap, and I knew he was scream if I carved it without his help. So I woke him up and we did a quickie 15 minute carve job before hurriedly getting Oliver dressed up in his Halloween outfit. I did the cutting, and Oliver's favorite part was pulling out the chunks. He started to help me clean out the seeds and pulp, but apparently he is not too much into the gooey scene. The pumpkin turned out cute enough for the time I took...

For the longest time Oliver has been enamored with wanting to be Dracula for Halloween. We tried looking at other costumes, but he only wanted to be Dracula. So Dracula it was. I guess the years of cute little animal costumes are over. This in no way means my dapper little Dracula was not cute. Quite the opposite...but hardly scary looking. Oliver still has his sweet, little baby face, and no amount of makeup can change that! He always takes on this pathetic, sad face when I ask him to pose for me. Sigh.

Here he is pre-makeup **trying** to look scary. What a studly Dracula.

I love this next picture. But I can't lie. I photoshopped it a teensy bit. Oliver refused to let me get the white makeup near his eyes, and I was extremely paranoid about using lots of black hairspray on my blonde boy, so I went light. I just made his hair a little blacker in sparse areas and filled in some white around his eyes to complete the face makeup. Nothing like a smilin' Dracula. And yes, the black hair paint washed out nicely, but not without a GIANT mess!

We hooked up with our usual group of friends and did our neighborhood trick-or-treating. This year Oliver was big enough to run a bit ahead of me independently, and I did not worry as much whether he'd trip along the way. That made it easier. He loaded up on all kinds of candy that Mommy and Daddy steal and eat while he is sleeping. After all, he isn't allowed any candy. Kidding! But seriously, Oliver does not eat much candy so what he gets lasts till the next Halloween. :)

At one scary point we couldn't find Oliver anywhere. I ran next door to Tricia's house to see if he was over there with all the kids, but he wasn't. I thought he might be hiding in our front yard "graveyard" as he enjoys hiding from us sometimes. But, no. A little bit frantic at this point, we heard runnning water inside the house. We found him in the bathroom trying to wash off his hair and face makeup by himself. Oliver is usually not independent that way, so I was surpised by this. But aside from that there was a TERRIBLE mess! Black and white watery streaks were dripping down his face onto his clothing and black stuff was all over the bathroom. I had to take time to get all the makeup off his face, then stuck his black cape back on so we could go outside and finish handing out candy and get some photos. Brad continued his yearly tradition of scaring the crap out of small children and animals (and many adults, too!) by dressing as Michael Myers. I guess the Las Vegas heat has finally taken its toll on the mask, literally melting a hole into it. But that's OK...it still does the job needed. Oliver has grown up around Scary Daddy so has no problem coming close for a Halloween hug.

This year I didn't take much time to think for a costume for myself. I dragged out some old scrubs from my hospital clinical days, threw on my stethoscope, and voila! ~~Doctor Mommy! The stinky boot I currently wear for my broken toe only added to the ambience of the costume:) Family Halloween picture:

And last, but not least, a picture of me and my little fella. Such a sad Dracula face. Guess it was a long day and mini-Dracula wouldn't be getting out late to take care of vampire business.....

For more pictures of our Halloween activities, checkout out my Halloween Slideshow. See you soon!