Halloween 3-Year-Old Style

In order to truly appreciate Halloween, I think you must be three. In my opinion, this holiday was made for three-year-olds. So, without further ado, here's how to have the perfect Halloween, three-year-old style. (And yes, below you will find picture overload. I did pare it down. A little).

1. Have a lazy mother who once again failed to get you a Halloween costume (can we blame baby Lucy just a little??). Have a wonderfully talented friend and neighbor who once again let you raid her homemade Halloween costume collection and pick out your favorite one: a dinsadour costume, of course (that's how he says it: dinsadour).

2. Wear that dinsadour costume everywhere for two weeks straight: to bed, riding your bike, to music class, to Panera for dinner. If your mom or dad tells you that you cannot wear that dinsadour costume to church and/or school, break down in absolute hysteria.

3. Attend your preschool's Halloween party and parade with all your school friends (especially Olivia--the little Snow White to the right of Will. He loves Olivia and she loves him. Olivia told her mom that she wants to "bury" (aka marry) Will).

4. Insist you hold your baby sister in her Halloween outfit. (Or insist you hold your baby sister in any outfit. At any time).

5. Carve a "scary jack-o-lantern" with your headless horseman father and your grammy. Love every second of it, especially the lighting of the jack-o-lantern at night. (And, of course, it's all done while wearing your dinsadour costume).

6. Attend the ward party, where you participate with your whole heart and soul in every game, in order to win the coveted prize: candy, candy, candy. In fact, insist you play every game twice so that you can receive more candy. (Note: my favorite game is pictured directly below. Will had to crawl through the streamers without knocking them down to get to the pumpkin filled with candy. Never have I seen a child take on a task so seriously. He was not messing around).

7. Go trick-or-treating for the first time in your neighborhood. Run with gusto and much excitement to every door (really, I want that image to stay in my mind forever--Will running gleefully from door to door, dinosaur tail wagging, pumpking pail glowing in the dark night. It will make me smile for years to come). Once you've hit about 15 houses, tell your dada, "It's past my bedtime. Let's go home."

Trick-or-treating at our house with Grammy passing out candy.

After running so fast and furiously from house to house, Will would run up to the house, ring the doorbell, then sit down and wait, then say, "I just need to rest a minute." It was too cute.

Happy Halloween to all. May you ever experience and enjoy it through the eyes of a three-year-old.