Lil' Dean Fam

A note about the costumes: We had these gorgeous costumes from China, but I wasn't sure if we should use them... I mean, what are they, Chinese guys? So, at the beginning of the month I was trying to think of costume ideas for this year. My Aunt Linda is a talented seamstress and has quite a collection of Halloween costumes. Each year I just call her up and see what she has in whatever size I need. I knew that my family would be coming up for conference, so I called her to see what she had in Ryan's size. She listed off a few things and I told her what to send. My grandparents brought two costumes for Ryan; one was an Indian and the other was Pinocchio. We also had the Chinese outfit. So, when it came time to decide I had Ryan try on all three costumes. We decided that we liked the Chinese ones the best although all three were very cute. We just thought it would be perfect to have the boys sort of "match" and dress as the same thing, since we had them and...

Today was a lot of fun. This year Ryan really understood what Halloween was all about and he got the concept of Trick-or-Treating for the first time. That made Halloween very enjoyable for us. Our day was pretty low-key in the morning but we did plenty in the afternoon and evening to make up for our slow start. At around 1:00 I got the boys dressed up in their "Chinese Men" costumes and took them up to Colin's work to Trick-or-Treat around the office. It is amazing to see how much the firm has grown here. I remember Ryan's first year going up to the office. He was only 2 months old and it was a very small celebration. Last year was busier and this year I could hardly get a parking spot! There are so many more people. I love taking the boys up to the office though because it is so fun to see all of the other adorable costumes. Some of the adults had quite amazing costumes this year as well. Ryan always wants to go visit dad at work because we'll do that occasional...

Ryan's preschool class did Halloween activities this Wednesday. They got to wear their costumes to class and they made a yummy Witches' Brew treat. They decorated pumpkins and enjoyed some other Halloween festivities. Ryan was very excited to wear his costume to class and I think he thought that was Halloween its self! At the end of class they all came out and paraded around the little circle to show off their costumes. Ryan was Pinocchio (I'll explain the ever-changing costume decision later), Curen was Spider Man, Maycee was a Care Bear, Corbin was a ninja, Aidan was a Pirate and Max didn't dress up. They are so cute going to preschool. It has been a lot of fun for me to take him while I've been off track. He hops out of the car and says, "see ya Mom"! I just love that little guy and he's ever-so adorable in this awesome Pinocchio costume made by my Aunt Linda. Ryan, Curen, Maycee Curen as Spider Man the three buds a candid shot of the kids after ...

This year we decided to paint our pumpkins instead of carve them. Ryan was so excited! He did a great job painting the pumpkins and we both had a lot of fun. Evan was glad to watch and he was happy with holding his pumpkin. I later painted that pumpkin with a Frankenstein face, I'll have to take a picture of it and post it later.

I took the boys up to the local pumpkin patch to pick out their pumpkins. It was a lot of fun and we got two cute pumpkins. We brought them home and painted them. More pictures to come!