Friday was our official "Trunk or Treat" day. We had so many Halloween festivities going on! It was also the first day that the boys got to wear their 2016 Halloween costumes. I was so excited about this. We've been thinking about these costumes for a few years and decided to go for it this year. I am all about DIYing Halloween costumes for some reason. DIYing is not typically my thing, but I like it for Halloween. To me, there's something so real and authentic with having homemade costumes. It probably goes back to my childhood when my costumes were homemade. I say all this about the homemade costumes and it will probably come back to bite me next year when the boys insist on a store-bought superhero costume or something similar. I'm calling it now. But while I can have the say so, and do coordinating costumes, and make them myself, I'm going for it!
So are you curious yet?!?!? We went with the THREE AMIGOS! Remember that movie from the 80's with Chevy Chase, Steve Martin and Martin Short?!?! Hilarious. I used this blog to copy the DIY tips to make the costumes (it was so not hard or I wouldn't have tried it).
I didn't get a good picture of all 3 of them with their costumes on on Friday, but don't you worry, I will make this happen on real Halloween.
I went ahead and took the day off of work since we had several different things going on. The day started off with a Trunk or Treat at Ryan's special school. His school had lots of volunteers from local businesses and community groups that came and elaborately decorated their trunks for these kids. How cool and sweet is that!?! I was talking to one of them and thanking him and he said that he came for the first time last year and it meant so much to him and he saw so many amazing kids that he won't ever miss it again. It was hot and a little chaotic, since this was our first one, but we figured out the flow after a few minutes. We saw Ryan's teachers and two of his therapists. We also saw William's NICU 2 roommate, Luke, and Ryan's EI, April. It was a fun morning! One thing of note: the Three Amigos costume really only works when the boys are all together. It was a little flat when Ryan was by himself. We got a lot of guesses of a matador or a mariachi band member. HA! I had a lot of explaining to do, including letting people know that he is a triplet and his brothers have matching costumes. Also, did you know....a lot of people don't remember or know about The Three Amigos?!?! Oh well. We thought it was cute and clever. LOL.
Quick pic of Ryan after I got his costume on before we left for his school Trunk or Treat on Friday morning!
Holding his horse!
Ready for Trunk or Treat
Trunk or Treat time!
Sitting in the fire truck!
Checking out the sand and shells in the Finding Doory trunk
Clemson girls! Woo hoo!!
Perfect Clemson scene - this was a different
trunk! Lots of Clemson love!
Ryan with Ms Ann (one of his teachers)
Safari trunk - he loved the big giraffe
Ryan with Mama
We went to Candy Land!
Ryan with his new PT and OT
Ryan with Luke, our friend from the NICU
After this Trunk or Treat, we went home, ate lunch and took a little nap before it was time to go for more action.
Sweet angel taking a nap
Later that afternoon, we went up to the other school, where Stokes and William go too, for more trick or treating. The teachers at the school decorated their trunks and had such cute and fun themes. They really put so much time and energy into this event. It was great!
Stokes and William and Tabitha's car
Willy Wonka trunk!
They liked getting candy!
Tailgate trunk! They wanted to hug the Tiger!
Stokes and the Tiger
Avondale trunk with Elsa!
Elsa gave everyone hugs!
Christmas trunk
Krispy Kreme donut trunk - YUM KK donated it all and they each got a donut hole and a certificate for another donut. YES!
After Trunk or Treat at their school, they had parties in their classes. There was lots of food and fun. I was going back and forth between the two classes for a few minutes and then eventually brought Ryan over to Stokes and William's class.
Stokes at his party
William
Class party!
Ryan at his party
And that wasn't the end of our Trunk or Treat day. It was also the Halloween celebration at Dada's work! This is an annual tradition and when I worked there, it was always my favorite day of the whole year. They seriously go all out and each year, the bar gets raised a little higher. It is truly incredible. By this point in the day, the boys were all about EATING their candy. At each candy stop (and there were A LOT) Stokes and William would hand Thomas or me a piece of candy that they wanted us to open. I normally don't give them much candy, apart from potty training rewards, but we were feeling generous. I have no idea how much candy they ate by the end of it, but I'm pretty sure it was a ton!
Goofing off with Brent!
Dada's area was decorated as "Cars"! Their favorite!
They are posing with Lightning McQueen
With a tractor in a farm area
We saw Auntie Steph and Ava Lana (aka Pocahontas)!
Rainbow Road from Mario Kart (I think???) haha
We ran in to Grayson and Landon!!!! YAY!
They don't look too excited here.
Alice in Wonderland! This area was seriously INCREDIBLE
Mad Hatter tea party
Queen of Hearts
A Nemo/Doory area :)
Tears and crying on the way home
Apart from Stokes not wanting to ride with me and crying for his Daddy the entire way home, and despite all the candy they had eaten through the afternoon, the evening was surprisingly normal. Several people had made comments that they'd never go to sleep after eating all that sugar, but we pretty much stuck to the routine and all was well.
We are super excited about the real Halloween and our neighborhood festivities on the 31st! MORE CANDY (and please make it stop - no more candy!). :) Stay tuned for the next post and (hopefully) a good picture of all 3 of them in costume - those little buttercups.
Earlier this week, Granddad and GranO came by and brought dinner and MaSha came over for a little family gathering. We used this opportunity to carve pumpkins as well. The boys loved hanging out and eating dinner with their great grandparents and MaSha and had fun carving the pumpkins. We let them take out the pumpkin seeds and gunk - the perfect activity for little guys!
Dessert time!
Dada cutting off the tops!
time to clean them out
Ryan liked the newspaper
Stokes kept taking the seeds out of the bowl and putting them back into the pumpkin LOL
Ryan goes to his special school 3 days a week. It's on the other side of town from where we live, and from his other school where Stokes and William are everyday. I hate that he feels so far away from me and his brothers on those days, but know that his special school is making a big and positive impact on his life and future.
I have a few personal connections to his special school that I didn't initially know about when he first started. Thomas's best buddy's mom, Mrs. Owings, volunteers there on occasion. She told me that she would check in on Ryan when she was there. I also realized that my church youth group leader from when I was in high school is now an occupational therapist there (although she's not Ryan's therapist). The most gratifying connection I've come across, however, is Sheilah Baker, aka SheShe. Sheilah is the mom of one of my very close friends, Brooke. I've known SheShe since Brooke and I became friends in college and she has always treated me like a part of the family, especially while I lived with Brooke for a few years post-college. She's an incredibly warm and funny lady, mama and grandmama. I had no idea that she did any volunteer work with Ryan's school until I got a text from her one day. She volunteers there one day a week and just happens to be assigned to Ryan's class! I was seriously thrilled. It helps me rest assured during the days that he's there that we have an extension of our family there with him, watching him, loving on him, and just being with him.
Funny text story from SheShe the other day...she said she was playing with Ryan and then she moved over to play with another little boy. Ryan put his head down and started to cry, so SheShe went right back over to him and he was happy again. She said her heart melted. That's my sweet boy! And I love it that he's getting spoiled with attention!
