Ian wanted to be a door for Halloween this year. I’m not exactly sure how he came to this decision, but eventually we were able to dissuade him and he decided on dressing as a frog. Then we ran into another huge decision for Ian as he pronounced that Badger wanted to dress up for Halloween as well. Ian debated for some time before arriving at a final decision for Badger’s costume. Fortunately we got some mileage out of these costumes for the season.

Just like September, October has flown by in a whirlwind of activities and good weather. We’ve had ballgames, Rocktoberfest, Halloween events, camping, paddling, archery season, and charity events. I can’t say that we’ve been bored even one time through this entire month, but I struggle to pinpoint just one activity that I could label as my favorite. Fortunately for Ian (but not for his teeth or his parents), many of our October activities required candy.

Ian’s reasons for requesting to dress like a door for Halloween are still not clear to us. Perhaps he’s heard the expression “You make a better door than window” one too many times when standing in our way? Regardless, we kept trying to throw new ideas at him hoping that he would jump on any different option. Then we visited Rock City with Alanna and Joy and found the frog hats sitting out for sale. Ian saw the frogs, and just had to have one. It turns out the frogs were actually hats, and only cost $5, so why not? After carrying his frog around the park for a while, Joy suggested that a green shirt and green pants could easily combine with the hat for a simple but cute Halloween costume. Thank goodness that Ian leaped at the idea! And thus he decided to dress like a frog for Halloween.

Then a few days later, Ian decided that Badger wanted to be a pumpkin for Halloween. I didn’t relish the idea of developing a pumpkin costume for a 350 pound pony. Then an idea occurred to me: Grandma can whip up a horse cooler from fleece material quickly and has sewn some of the nicer horse coolers I’ve seen. I have a rainbow of colors in horse coolers for the full-sized members of my herd. I’ll bet she could make a pony sized cooler. But will Ian really want an orange cooler once Halloween is over? It took some subtle idea dropping, but eventually Ian decided that he could wear his train costume from last Halloween and dress as Percy the train with Badger. Now he could have a green color, which he’ll be excited to use on Badger for every cold weather walk we take this winter. Grandma quickly assembled the cutest tiny cooler I’ve every seen, and even stitched “6” on each side, since Percy is the 6th engine on the island of Sodor.

Ian and Badger debuted their joint Percy costume on Saturday at the Cummins Mill Saddle Club Halloween show. The pair managed to win second place despite some minor setbacks. When Ian first walked his pony around the ring to let him see the sights, Badger decided he was more interested in experiencing the freshly turned over arena dirt. And down the pony went. Ian tugged on Badger’s lead rope while calling “come on, Badger, we need to go
this way,” but Badger preferred to continue rolling and grinding dirt into his coat. Needless to say, Badger needed some brushing before costume assembly. Mogwai and Chaco also took a turn around the ring for doggie costume class as a pumpkin and scuba girl. Chaco really did not appreciate the experience.

On top of the awesome sweet treats Ms. Terri handed out as horse-show prizes, Ian dressed up for several other candy events in the last week. His first event took us to his preschool where we attended the annual trunk-or-treat on Thursday morning. Ian decided to don his Percy costume for this trick-or-treat experience, and actually wore the hat! That evening we hopped back in the jeep and made our way to Tennessee Tech’s basketball season kickoff: Purple Palooza. At this event, Ian the frog bounced all the way around the concourse of our basketball arena with trick-or-treating every few feet. This necessitated a quick trip to study hall to share some of the sugary wealth with Ms. Virginia and her students.

After Purple Palooza, Ian hung up his frog costume until the big day –October 31st. After some quick pumpkin carving at home after work, Ian suited up a final time as a frog, and we visited our neighbor’s farm for a quick trick-or-treat stop, then made the loop around our church’s trunk or treat at the FUMC boo-bash. While there, I witnessed the best couple’s costume of all time: Bob Ross and a happy tree! From boo bash, it was off to Dixie Avenue for good old-fashioned trick-or-tricking from door to door. All of the home owners were extremely gracious and kind to the little princesses, TMNTs, ponies, ghosts, and more. Once again, Ian asked to go by study hall at mommy’s work and share his candy. I’m not sure if Ms. Virginia was thrilled with the prospect of Ian sugaring up a room full of 18 year olds, but the students seemed to enjoy the sweet interruption.

Ian didn’t manage to maintain consciousness on the drive home, so he missed getting to see his pumpkin with a candle glowing in the dark, so we’ll extend Halloween just one more day. We will light candles for our jack-o-lanterns and turn on the Halloween string lights one final time, then pack it all away again for 11 months. I guess it’s time to say goodbye to Halloween and start making plans for Thanksgiving!