Halloween 2016 - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Our first Halloween in the United States was epic. We made jack-o-lanterns together. Bean wanted a happy one; PJ wanted a scary one. Papa delivered on both.

Bean & PJ decided that we would go trick-or-treating as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. We were all assigned a personality:

PJ was the blue turtle, Leo, who is the sensitive leader of the pack who appears to deal with (and create) a lot of nonsense. That fits. 

Bean was the red turtle, Raph, who is shown as strong, a bit rough-and-tumble, and doesn't hesitate to enter into battles. That fits too (don't let the blonde hair and cute smile fool you). 

The Mr. was the purple turtle, Donnie, who is suppose to be the book-smart one that likes science and research. That doesn't quite fit. 

I was the orange turtle, Mikey, who is a free-spirited jokester. Worst casting ever. 

We joined up with some new friends (awesome family!) and went trick-or-treating. The two boys adored it, confidently running from house to house, yelling out "trick or treat!". Bean enjoyed the candy and was most interested in the decorations. She tended to move slower.

At one point we were on a wonderfully wickedly decorated porch when suddenly a life-size witch took a step in my direction. I got spooked and screamed like a teenager in a horror movie; Bean waved and called out "Hi Witch!"

The next group of parents walking with their own trick-or-treaters laughed so hard, one guy had to bend over to catch his breath.

So, I guess the casting wasn't THAT bad...

XO

Happy Halloween!

PJ went trick-or-treating for the first time this year. Since we live in Germany, where trick-or-treating is just entering into the mainstream, making this night possible bordered on magical for me. I have great memories of trick-or-treating in all the different neighbourhoods we lived in or visited. When we lived in the middle-of-freaking-nowhere my mom would even drive us up to Dayton to enjoy the night.

I guess I wanted PJ to have a taste of that too. Thankful the weather was on our side, although it wasn't warm, it didn't rain and it wasn't windy.

PJ as Eyore, nice and warm.

Friends of ours invited us to their small village for a night of awesome people, easy-going trick-or-treating, good food, and fun music. There were even jack-o-lanterns.

First stop, pumpkin review.

The Steinbach clan. I really did have a costume on - you'll see it later.

As soon as it got a little darker, we took off to trick-or-treat. The older kids ran off with two dads and the rest of us came together in a rag-tag sort of group. PJ was the youngest in our group - the others were seasoned pros. At the first two houses, PJ was confused. But by the third place, he carefully climbed the stairs, scooted through the kids who had already gotten their candy, to confidentially stuck out his open hand. As soon as he had his piece of candy, he'd throw it into his little bag - made by Aunt Sally a year ago - and head off to follow the older kids to the next house.

The 'older' kids setting the pace.

PJ getting his piece of candy.

Heading off to catch up with the others.

After a few hours, little PJ started to get candy picky. Sometimes he even had to be convinced to take a specific piece.

Hum....which one should he take?

This one shall do.

After he got the door part of the trip down, he noticed the other kids were carrying their bags. He got into the game...for a very short period of time. Bags slow ya down, you know?

PJ with his bag of candy. It was a big bag.

 Then we got back to the party, where the dancing recommenced and...

...PJ met fire! We had to hold him back with both arms, the entire time. Who doesn't like fire?

Finally we wrapped up the evening with some yummy salads, which somehow made PJ very excited.  That should make me happy but I'm pretty sure it was still the rush from the trick-or-treating, the dancing, and the fire (!!!).

It was totally the fire. Or the candy. Or my own excitement at sharing something so fundamental to my childhood with my own child that rubbed off on the entire Steinbach clan.

Yeah, it might have been that. 


XO