A couple weeks before Halloween, Bekah asked me if I had a bear outfit that Lily could borrow. Lily would be an adorable teddy bear...and she was! (Although a little tired and not quite digging the picture taking.)
The next problem was Brendan's costume. I kept looking around, but nothing ever jumped out at me. I thought about a lion tamer, but there was no way I was going to give my 2-year-old a whip, and I just couldn't see spending money on a top hat for him.
We threw around some other ideas (or rather I threw them at Scott and his response was "I don't really care what he is" - helpful). With Lily being a Teddy Bear, I thought it would be cute to get Brendan a Tiger costume so we could have a Lion, a Tiger and a Bear! OH MY!
Finally, on the morning of the 30th, I realized I better hurry and get a costume for my toddler, there was no more time to procrastinate. I ran into Target, now, out of time, ideas, and short on money. I found a cute little Zoo Keeper (which looks a lot like a Safari hunter, but again, no weapon for the 2-year-old) on sale for 25% off. I'll take it! Unfortunately, I got the wrong size and the costume was too big. But with a pair of khaki pants from home and a safety-pin, we were dressed. At least he is only 2 and wont remember any of it!
Our church put on a Trunk-or-Treat that I wanted to take the kids to. We didn't make it last year and thought it would be fun for Brendan. My sister brought Lily over to take pictures of the Grand kids together for my mom. Taking pictures of three kids is quite a challenge. Luckily we started taking pictures of Caleb & Lily together and Brendan said "my turn" so once we got all 3 kids on the couch, Bekah & I started snapping away hoping one of us got at least one good picture. Looking back, some of the pictures are quite comical of the three of them! By the end you can tell all 3 were done with the picture taking.
Once we were done with the pictures, Bekah and I took the kiddos to the church parking lot for Trunk-or-Treat. Scott & Kevin were both already at the church dealing with the parking for the event, unfortunately for us that meant not much help with the babies. With two of us, we managed pretty well.
Brendan had a good time, but he never really grasped the concept that every car was going to give him candy. Every piece of candy (thankfully it was all wrapped) ended up in his mouth, I then had to take it out and explain to him (again and again) that the candy goes in the bag. He was very polite, said please and thank you over and over. By the time we were half-way through the line of cars, my sister and I decided he had enough candy and he wouldn't know any different. So we started just walking back through the line of cars back to our car. Every once in a while, Brendan would realize someone was handing out candy and would stop to get a piece, but the second half went a lot faster.
By the end of the night my back hurt from leaning over and carrying Caleb, I was exhausted and Brendan was quite content with his stash of Dum-Dums, Smarties & Tootsie Rolls. Luckily, by the time we were done, so was Scott, so one more stop by the fire engine for Brendan to drive and we were on our way home!
One last family shot of the Atkinson's and a picture of father and son, I was hoping for a nice picture of Scott and Brendan...this is as good as it gets...
I'm excited to see them again for Thanksgiving, it will be a wonderful (and full house) Holiday season!
