So many treats

Halloween was a success!

We have been talking excitedly about Charlie's costume for weeks now, to prepare him.  I brought it out almost a month ago because I suspected he was not going to be thrilled about a costume with a hood.  While he no longer acts like his coat is burning his skin right off, a hat or hood still remains out of the question.  So the costume was a big question mark.

Besides the hood, our other problem was that our two and a half year-old has an opinion of his own.  I was able to choose Zach's costume for his first three years, so I naively assumed the same would be true of Charlie, and bought him an adorable monster costume way back in April.

Over the last six weeks Zach has waffled between Star Wars and Super Mario Brothers characters.  I thought Obi-Wan Kenobi was going to win out, but in the end he ultimately selected and was thrilled to be Toad (click the link if you have no idea who that is!).  Charlie took one look at that costume and said "I Toad."  Either that or Donkey Kong (complete with a roar) - that's who he wanted to be.

So in the last few weeks when we've had a few chances to put on our costumes, Charlie instead chose to wear his Halloween Mickey shirt (thanks Grandma & Grandpa!).  He would tell people he was going to be a monster, and roar at them, then politely decline when it was time to actually put the costume on.  But Scott was determined, and he's generally more successful at these things than I am... so in the end Charlie wore his costume - even the hood!  Hooray!

One thing we did not have to work hard to convince Charlie to do - trick or treat!  We went to our next door neighbors first, and they made such a big to-do about him in his costume, AND gave him a full-size Hershey bar, and the boy was hooked.  Zach's encouragement didn't hurt either.

Scott took the boys around the neighborhood while I manned the door, and apparently some people were asking the kids if they wanted chocolate or other kinds of candy.  Charlie picked up on that, and at one house said "no, choca!" when given something like Skittles.  (We can't help but smile and be proud about this one, we're chocolate people in this house!)  Zach was patient with his brother's little legs, and they managed to cover a large part of the neighborhood.

Our neighbors across the street sat outside - under blankets - to hand out candy.  I knew our boys where home when I heard Charlie outside, standing in the driveway, repeatedly roaring at the on the tops of his lungs.  He got into the spirit!

Zach couldn't wait to show me his haul - and wow, was it a haul.  I wonder how much of it will still be in his treat box when Halloween rolls around next year???