trick-or-treating: take 1

last year we headed to downtown plymouth with jessica, who had just gotten in from haiti, and justin, who had just gotten in to visit, for some pre-trick-or-treating around the businesses. we had such a great time that we decided to do it again this year, and headed to plymouth last nite for a practice round of trick-or-treating.
mom met up with us and dave actually got out of work early enough to meet us not long after it started. we were able to run into our friends, the york's and story's, but could only chat for a few minutes as the kids wanted to keep moving!
while we were waiting for the trick-or-treating to start, we sat outside of vanity salon where hayden met his new best friend, aiden. aiden was also dressed up as spiderman and these two were inseparable to whole evening.
hayden started complaining at about 6:20 that he was tired and wanted to sit. when we told him we could just go home he yelled that he didn't want to. but then continued whining about walking so much. right...like he ever gets tired!
talan was stuck in his stroller for much of the evening but dave did pick him up and carry him for a bit. maybe tonite we'll try letting him walk a bit. he doesn't like to walk with us, so we'll see how it goes.
we finished up a little earlier than 7pm and then headed back home to eat dinner and get ready for bed.
the boys got quite the stash of candy, and to think last nite was only the beginning!

waiting for the trick-or-treating to begin:
he wore his mask for a little bit at least...i actually think his head to too big for it:
there was a call and spiderman came running to downtown plymouth:

sucker #1:
only part of the line that wound around plymouth:
hayden refused to have his picture taken with this chocolate chip cookie:



aiden insisted on holding hayden's hand every time they crossed the street:
this is where we got suckers telling us to vote for some dude for judge. but another judge gave us full size twix bars. guess which judge i'm voting for?!:
shark attack!:


aiden and hayden:
sucker number 2. this costume was really sticky when we got home:

talan has no idea this thing is supposed to be scary:
i had to take a picture of "salon awesome" cuz that's so NOT awesome. go to vanity salon instead:

guttin' punkins

after buying our good sized, cheap pumpkins from the wonderfully newly renovated joe's produce we got to gutting and carving them last nite.
last year, jessica had just gotten home from haiti and justin was also in town so we had a lot of help. this year, thankfully tina returned to help out since jess and justin aren't here. good think, cuz we had 3 pumpkins to carve and dave always seems to find a reason why he can't help!
hayden picked out a mickey mouse dracula pattern that he wanted on his pumpkin and then he helped tina choose what pattern she should use. when we realized it would be a little too difficult for hayden to carve one of the patterns we decided to help him draw on his own face so he could carve it by himself. this was the first year that he carved a pumpkin. every other year we have bought him a few smaller ones that he has painted. last year didn't go so well since i really only had water color paints. yeah. i know.
it seems like most years i pick a pattern that is far too complicated and halfway through i'm wishing i would have just stuck with the typical triangle eyes jack o' lantern. but this year we chose pretty easy patterns andhayden did a great job of carving his own pumpkin so we were done pretty quickly.
as usual, hayden did not want to stick his hand anywhere near the insides of a pumpkin. and when he got the tiniest bit of pumpkin guts on his jeans he about freaked out and thought we'd need to wash them IMMEDIATELY. sincetina and i were stuck cleaning out the pumpkins and i knew that hayden could actually take a decent picture, we set him loose with not only my camera but tina's as well. there were some interesting shots to say the least.
dave kept talan away for awhile as he just wanted to beat the pumpkins with spoons or pick up the carving tools. before he headed to bed i tried getting him to stand next to the pumpkin for a few photos. surprisingly, even he didn't want to play around in the pumpkin guts. we did manage to get him to stick his arm in there at least once though.
it was past hayden's bedtime by the time we finished so he was bummed that he couldn't eat pumpkin seeds last nite. he worked out a deal with dave though that once he ate his breakfast in the morning he could have a few seeds. and he made sure we stuck to that deal this morning!

getting started:



you really want me to stick my hand in there?!:

that touch was enough for him:
showing him all the fun things you can do with pumpkin guts:

i have no idea how he even got this close to the cat. but it does appear that he's on drugs:
hayden took this picture and said "yeah! cool cowboy!":
he calls this, "football feet":


what is that?!:

we made him go after a spoon but he wasn't that thrilled about it:
talan giving tina a hug goodnite:
hayden showing more of his artistic artsy photographer side:

hayden carving his first pumpkin:


hayden and tina pushing the mouth piece through:

the only time he stuck his hand in the pumpkin was to get the pieces that he carved out. the pumpkin was totally cleaned out, mind you, but he still hated it:
he could not wait to get this out of his hands:
hayden's first carved pumpkin:
good work, teens!:


even though dave didn't even touch a pumpkin, hayden insisted he get in for a picture:
hayden insisted they take pictures of each other. i had about 10 shots of tina taking a picture of hayden. thank goodness for digital cameras:

hayden's pumpkin that he picked out and picked out the pattern for but i carved:
the pumpkin hayden carved himself:
tina's pumpkin:
hayden with the finished product: