Halloween

Yesterday was our last Halloween in Houston. Rick actually had two days as the kids his age had a trick-or treat event through the school corridors on Tuesday already. As Rick's best friend Roddy was going to be dressed as Buzz Lightyear (from Toy Story), Rick wanted to be Buzz' best friend Woody for the day (I had happened to have bought that costume as a suitcase friendly Sinterklaas present but alas....). We put him in his own boots, which are much cooler then the fake ones, but he was not onboard with that. He HAD to wear the full pretend costume.

I had decided that with Kaat at < 2 yrs old it was still my right as a mom to decide what she would look like. So I picked this cute Garden Gnome outfit for her. She was all ok with it as long as she could wear het Pyjama's underneath (we are going through a phase where Kaat does NOT want to get out of her pyama's in the morning). For kids her age half the costume footwear is only indoor so not suitable for school. Her preppy boots worked just as well.

I had decided that Rick probably did have a clear opinion on what he wanted to be for Halloween so I held of buying him anything. When I asked him though and proposed some options (incl. Woody) he said: "a Horse!". When I said 'but you where a horse last year' he looked at me vaguely and responded: "Yes, I am always a horse for Halloween." So true - this whole change every year and consumerism is overdone. So a horse it was and on the real Halloween day Rick was back in last year's suit (which fortunately still just fitted). No doubt at all about being anything else.

We had a fun morning watching them. 

and interesting company for breakfast

We however where not very organized for what happened after school and got home late and too tired. Fortunately there was some Halloween parade event a few blocks from our house with some of Rick's friends and so no need to make much of a plan. The pictures are all way too dark so not much to show for. We can tell you though that Rick still knew the drill - and had deteriorated from just being thankfull to being picky on what candy he wanted from each bowl - still with a lot of cute smiles & thank you-s en hopefull enquiries if the home owners please could confirm that their decoration was 'just for pretend only' so it was all still manageable.

Kaat had not much interest in trick or treating and grabbed a few candy things all chocolaty and squashable. They all needed to be opend and where discarded after 1 lick until she finaly scored a HUGE lollipop (both Kaat & Rick's favorites) and then she was done and just dragged and dictated Dad around from one decorated garden to another.

On the way back Rick complained about a funny tummy and declared he had eaten too much candy which made us laugh hard. He then angrily said that that was NOT funny...sorry Rick! Not too much later he actually called us upstairs as he had thrown up in bed. He was not dsistressed at all and as a real scientist decsribed the process in finite detail (I drank my milk and then it came all out again, and I could not stop it and it went really fast and....) to then move on to excusing himself profusely for making a mess as "he was really sorry but did not have a bucket....". We felt adequately quilty and wondered yet again how we deserved such a child!

Safe to say that most of the candy (apart from pretzels and lollipops) have miraculously disappeared -:)