Every year since Kate and Joshua were born, Jenny’s family has come over to our house for trick-or-treating. It’s one of my favorite yearly rituals! We’re gearing up to do it once again tonight, and I’ve been thinking about how much our kids (and our trick-or-treating experiences) have changed over the years. And as I was going through pictures, I realized how much Jenny and I like to recycle costumes!
In 2004, Kate was six months old and Joshua was eight months. Here’s Joshua all decked out, hanging out with his daddy:
I don’t know why, but I couldn’t find a picture of both the kids in their costumes, but here they are later that night:
(Oh, hi, this is Jenny, I found a pic of them in their costumes! Kate was a bug! So cute! Ok, now back to Emily!)
For their second Halloween, we got them all dressed up again and handed out candy at our house (those were the blissful days when they didn’t yet know what candy was). Here’s my cute chicken (this costume will be put back into circulation tonight!):
And Jenny’s cute turtle:
In 2006, we finally introduced Joshua and Kate to trick-or-treating. I will never forget the looks on their faces when they figured out exactly what was going on! Here they are going up to the first door together:
After they gathered their loot (note Joshua’s costume – you will see it again!):
Kate’s costume that year was some serious recycling! Here’s a throwback picture of me and my friend Karson – I’m wearing the same clown outfit Kate’s wearing in the picture above. My great-grandmother made it, and it’s been worn by my sister and cousin as well.
The next year, we added (or Jenny and Bobby added, I guess) another kid into the mix (costume handed down by my friend Marianne):
Since Joshua was still obsessed with Thomas, Jenny saved some $$ and broke out that costume once again:
Tonight will be round five. I am so excited… it is unbelievable to me that already so many halloweens have passed and our kids have grown up so much.
Frankly, I’m still not sure how Jenny and I went from dressing up as California Raisins (note to self: find pictures of that!) and hitting the streets to wrangling FOUR kids of our own into their costumes.
When did we become the grown ups?
Yeah, I’m not sure when I got to be the adult either. Things certainly do change!
So cute! I love the stories behind the costumes and I love how you share the whole Halloween experience with people you love- what a great idea.
Have fun tomorrow night!
hahaha! I remember the california rasins costume. I think they consisted of black trash bags, if I remember correctly.
I do remember Jenny dressing up like a gypsy about every year, wearing her mom’s jewelry and scarves. That was some great recycling as well.
People are gonna look funny at you if you go out tonight… being that Halloween is tomorrow night
Kathy – our trick or treat “beggar’s night” is tonight here in our town, for some reason!
Hey, I’m not a grown up! I just pretend to be sometimes. We recycle our costumes too. I love that that one costume has been handed down for a very long time.
Very cool post. Makes me want to break out my brothers Funky Chicken outfit…..
We prefer to recycle too! Last year B was a pig, that had been worn by my friend’s daughter. This year, we didn’t get a hand-me-down, but I found a great deal on a cute Lady bug costume at the second-hand shop.
Hmm…let’s see, I’ve got some more hand-me-downs just waiting for you girls!
Dragon
Woody
Buzz
Power Ranger
…and I thought I tossed Princess Pinky’s Strawberry Shortcake costume in the last bag of goodies I gave ya. That one’s got the fun wig!
LOVE the pix! Great post idea – you girls ought to add a Mr. Linky!