The One with Halloween 2011

I love Halloween. I love love love love love love love love love (love) it. Always have. Always will. And now that I have a child to live vicariously through, my love for it has magnified a hundred fold. Here's how Halloween 2011 went down:

We started off by going to Disneyland early in the morning. Rather than post all 28 pictures individually, I've made a collage and will explain our trip below:

1) The park opened at 8am and we were there shortly thereafter. 2) It was so empty! Just how I like it! 3) We stopped and looked at the flowers, 4) then walked under the castle to get into Fantasyland - you have to knock out all the kiddie rides first because they get super crowded as the day progresses. 5) First stop: Peter Pan. We only waited like 5 minutes, hooray! 6) Then Mr. Toad's Wild Ride 7) Alice in Wonderland 8) Storybook Land Canal Boats 9) Casey Circus Train 10) Pinocchio 11) Snow White 12) The walk through Sleeping Beauty's Castle 13) We went into Mickey's Toon Town for the very first time with Fox and went on the Roger Rabbit ride. 14) Then we went on Finding Nemo for the first time. 15) Astro Blasters (I got to level 3) 16) Jungle Cruise 17 + 18) The Enchanted Tiki Room 19) Winnie the Pooh 20) The train around the entire park 21) We saw some characters from afar: Cinderella's wicked stepmother and stepsister (I've never seen them before!) 22) Jack Skellington and Sally 23 + 24) They're starting to decorate for Christmas already and New Orleans square looks so lovely 25) We ate lunch at a place I've never eaten at before and got a kids meal with chicken fingers and fries. 26) Fox loves fries. 27) We ended the morning with The Haunted Mansion - appropriate for the day right? 28) Fox was wide awake when we entered The Haunted Mansion and fast asleep when we exited. That was our queue to leave!

And that was our morning at Disneyland on Halloween! The only other rides I wish we could have gone on but couldn't cuz they're closed are Pirates of the Caribbean and It's a Small World. Other than that, we pretty much went on everything little ones can go on - all within a few hours!

We got home and Chris came home so I worked and then the festivities began! I think I've started a new tradition: reading The Berenstain Bears Trick or Trick to Fox before we go out trick-or-treating:

My brother and I LOVED reading the Berenstain Bears books growing up. I could dedicate an entire post to the subject. I hope to pass the same love of reading along to Fox. He seems pretty into it thus far.

Then we got Fox dressed up as Clark Kent and Joey dressed up as a bee.

Too cute to spook!

The very first house Fox ever trick-or-treated at!

It's a big milestone in my book. He wasn't quite sure what was going on. He put his hand over the candy bowl but didn't take anything. I put a Milky Way in his hand which he happily gnawed on for the next several minutes.

I FINALLY got a peak inside my very favorite house in all of South Pasadena.

There were so many things I wanted to say and ask but I got too flustered and just took the candy and ran. Next year...

We stopped at lots and lots of houses.

THE street to trick-or-treat on in South Pas is Milan. It's so populated with children running amoc that police cars patrol up and down the street all night. It's straight out of Halloween movies and makes my heart do flip flops! It's the epitome of what Halloween should be. I couldn't get great pictures of it cuz it was dark, but trust me, it's crazy!

We were only out and about for an hour or so. Fox sure hauled it in though!

By the end of the night he knew exactly what to do: he'd walk up to the door, wait for it to open, grab a treat right outta the bowl, then turn around and leave. We'll work on the "trick-or-treat" and "thank you" part for next year. By then he'll be running and we won't be able to keep up!

Best Halloween yet!