The Cowgirl and the Pirate

First things first, Trigger (aka Secretariat) won second place in my office's Halloween pet costume contest. He lost to a cat with a kicky hat and witch's dress. Any cat that willingly wears a hat and dress probably deserves first place. But I think Trigger looks pretty good too. As a bonus, the costume made him a little humble and reserved. I think I'll put it on him every night. On Halloween, I spent a few minutes with Will's class for a Halloween party. The kids wore their costumes and had a parade around school and then changed back into regular clothes for a Halloween snackfest extravaganza. Each snack item was orange - wiggly jello bats, cheez-its, orange slices, cupcakes (made by the Bronco Baby Mom), cheese stick and orange juice. Very appealing for the 4-yr old set. Here they are singing the Montessori pre-snack song. The hand-holding and singing warms my heart. Will takes his wiggly orange jello very seriously.

I headed back to work for a few hours and then picked up the kiddos early to take the tour around the offices (all of their Cheyenne relatives are state employees and we take our office trick-or-treating very seriously!) and then home for a quick meal so that at least a few of the calories they ingested that day were of the protein/vitamin-laden variety.

Here's the official 2011 Halloween picture:

Reina is a homemade Jessie the Cowgirl. She was delighted with her hastily sewn cowhide chaps that are actually safety pinned to her jeans and her sale rack western shirt that she'll be able to wear until she's a 4T. Will is a pirate. He wanted to be Capt Jack Sparrow but he ended up looking more like a Three Musketeer/buccaneer variety pirate. He's got the jauntiness down pat.

The weather was pretty decent for a Wyoming Halloween and we all went trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. Both kids quickly figured out that ringing a few doorbells and shrieking "TICKORTEE!!" equaled a handful of candy in your orange plastic pumpkin and they were fully on board with the process, until we got to this house. If you zoom in closely, you can see someone coming around the corner.

Well, behind that person was a grown man dressed in full Darth Vadar gear, complete with flowing black cape and scary black head dress thing. I saw him before the kids did and as I scooped in to get Reina, I couldn't capture any of it on film. The Cowgirl took one look at Vader, her face fell and she quickly took a few steps backward to get the heck out of Dodge. She didn't cry but she must have figured that no amount of candy was worth the price of staying on that porch. Will, of course, was enthralled. "I know who you are!" It was definitely Will's favorite house of the night. Darth Vader, to his credit, pulled his mask off when he saw the terrified two-year-old and she did eventually go back up to the door but she was on alert for the rest of the evening.

After a few more houses, Will was cold and ready to peruse the contents of his plastic pumpkin and Reina was tired of being suspicious of each house so we headed home. The kids helped us hand out candy for a few minutes before crashing hard. The night after Halloween, we were hit with another big snowstorm so we made it just in the nick of time. Happy Halloween everyone!