Since we already had a tiger costume that would fit Charlie were were throwing around some ideas like Jungle Book and Winnie-the-Pooh; however, Alec wanted to be a lion so we worked with that. I found a lion jumpsuit at Savers and threw together the rest.
In the early afternoon we practiced trick-or-treating along one of the main streets around here that had the businesses pass out candy. Charlie got the hang of taking candy out of a bowl, but didn't really want to put it in a bag... not when his mouth was ready for it! Then we had barely any time for naps before going to our two-ward party/carnival. Alec was mostly scared of everyone costumes and the crowds but had that bizarre fascination where although he didn't want to do anything by himself or even let go of our hands, he also didn't want to leave. It wasn't too hard to convince him to head on over to our courtyard party with words like, "watch a movie outside, pizza, friends, jack-o-lantern contest, costume parade, caramel apples and more trick-or-treating."
I actually got to relax at this courtyard party for a few minutes. It helped to have two other awesome CAs and to have the children basically immobilized with a movie. Alec was a pro trick-or-treater, said "thank you" and even happily gave ("just one") candy to other kids who came to our patio. Charlie, having already mastered the grabbing part, perfected the stashing part, yet still had trouble with the stopping part. Luckily most people let him take a few handfuls before Chris had to tear him away. Overall, it was a fun Halloween.
Alec was crying from something seriously trivial and my mind wandered from concern to "we don't have very many pictures of this face even though we see it daily" I couldn't resist.
We went to Ardenwood Farms on Saturday and saw a lot of farm animals up close, helped card/spin some wool, climbed up this massive hay pyramid and picked out some pumpkins. You forget how huge cows actually are until you see them up close. Alec was pretty nervous and decided to stay a few feet away from any of the fences. We did get him to pet a sheep! Charlie just had shots the other day and was pretty tired but he liked climbing on the hay. I just love fall.
Charlie had a great birthday. He loved the house decorations and loved having dinner early so we could share cake and ice cream out in the courtyard. He acted pretty chill yet slightly interested throughout the whole event. He liked wearing his party hat, he liked watching all the other kids, he liked eating cake and ice cream, and he liked opening presents.
Alec was such a nice and patient brother and behaved very well watching his little brother get spoiled on his birthday. I was very impressed.
Above is his reaction to his first big bite of ice cream. He LOVED the ice cream.
Charlie is so friendly! He likes to give hugs to good friends, and even walked up to his doctor to have her hold him! He smiles a lot and is not afraid to hold his own around big kids. If what he wants is in the middle of a bunch of rowdy 4 year olds, he'll just walk on through and even try to take toys from them. He thinks he's much older than he is and tries to do everything Alec does. He loves to walk and often just paces around the rooms holding toys or touching furniture. He goes to sleep all by himself, loves to eat crayons, chalk, sand, twigs and bark. He makes a really sad face and depressed cry when he can't have something he wants. He likes to put things in things (ex. balls in cups), push around cars and hit balls with sticks, clubs, or bats. He's handsome, sweet, daring and charming. We LOVE our little Charlie.
