Trick or Treat!

This year was Kenzie's first real Halloween experience. Sure, she was around last year but at that point in time, she didn't do much. Last year we sat outside (bundled up) and gave a few kids candy before we had to move the party inside because I was afraid she was getting too chilly. What a change this year. Not only with our little munchkin but with the weather. Holy cow!

This year we started our Halloween festivities by attending our church's annual Fall Festival and trunk or treat the weekend before Halloween. This was set to be our dry run in Kenzie's Calico cat costume. I had this feeling that I had spent hours making this tutu and she was going to refuse to wear it and therefore become a regular black cat. I figured this would be a good practice though.

We got her all ready (sans the ears and tutu) and headed over to the church. We live less than 2 miles from it, so it was a short ride. Once we got there, we put on her ears, drew on her nose and whiskers, and put her in the tutu. Success! She actually didn't complain once! She wore that tutu proudly for two hours. Okay, I think she was so enthused with everyone else at the Fall Festival that she just forgot she had it on. She had person after person tell her how cute she was. I was one proud momma.

Make way for a kitty cat on a mission
(check out the adorable tail)

Kenzie spent an hour or so wandering around the parking lot trying to see what she could get into before the Trunk or Treat started. She did remarkably well holding our hands and going through the Trunk or Treat. Our child is a mover and a shaker so when she doesn't want to go the direction we are going, we are usually told about it. We ended up having to carry her to the last few cards (which with a tutu... wasn't fun). It was good practice for her trick or treating on Halloween night. It also helped us build up our candy supply so we would have enough. We tend to get quite a few trick or treaters at our house. It's a big neighborhood. Anyway, after the trunk or treating, we found out that Kenzie had been entered into the Best Kids Costume contest so we made sure to wait until they announced the winners. Lo and behold, our little Kenzie Kat won! I knew she was adorable.

A kitty and her plaque

One of the few moments that she wasn't moving. And we lost
her behind all that tulle.

 A few nights before Halloween we decided to go ahead and carve our pumpkin. We chose a new design this year (and I made sure it matched Kenzie's costume theme.) Kenzie seemed to think that pulling the guts out of the pumpkin, which gross, was awesome. She would stick her hand in and not grab anything then wait for one of us to pull out the innards before taking it from our hands, playing with it, and then putting it in the bowl. What a change from last year when I wore her and she just sat there watching and not really caring what was going on.

"Helping"

 

Daddy did a great job carving our cat

 On Halloween we had Grandma and Grandaddy here already because they were keeping Kenzie while I attended a conference that week and Nana ended up driving in to experience Kenzie's first trick or treating with her. Papa couldn't come because he is recovering from a hip replacement surgery but he was there in spirit. Kenzie seemed super enthused with the idea of getting all dressed up again.

Kenzie was ready to go before we could even get her full outfit on her. We ended up taking her outside first to get a few pictures. She isn't the most cooperative child though and really just wanted to run and play (and pick up the pumpkins I had brought out as props to carry them around).

My favorite part of the entire outfit...
watching her try to stand up. Poor thing.

We ended up hitting about 5 or 6 houses which is plenty for a 15 month old.  Everyone thought she was adorable as well. She is so I can't blame them for telling me. =) Once we got back to the house we started handing out our own candy. Who would have thought that this would be Kenzie's favorite time of the night? Every time the doorbell would ring or someone would knock, Kenzie would look at me with big eyes and give me one of her characteristic "oooooooo" noises then wait to be picked up to go hand out candy with me. She thought all the kids in their costumes were just the greatest things ever. Kenzie would stand in the living room at the gate that keeps her from going into the hall and just watch the front door and wait. It was hysterical. Before the end of the night we even let her share a lollipop with Daddy. Don't worry. We were super careful. She loved it. She was sort of upset when it was gone. 

Spoiled...

We think Halloween was pretty successful this year. Now, to spend the next year coming up with a costume idea to top this years. I have an idea already. Let's just hope tutus are still in style next year...