Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
Can you fix it? — Bob the Builder
My neighbor stopped by on Halloween with her adorable baby. He’s about one. He was strapped in his jogging stroller. The rain was starting to come down, but he was ever so snug in his Tigger costume. You know the expression “Good enough to eat”? Well, that little guy was good enough to eat. So cute!
The First Halloween
I couldn’t help but cast my mind back to when my kids were infants and babies. We’ve always lived where we live now. The kids have grown up trick-or-treating at our neighbor’s houses. We started letting the kids trick or treat early. For my oldest who was born in the winter, I took her to only one house her first Halloween. It was a cold night and I didn’t want to have her in the cold night air. I carried her across the road to my neighbor’s house and stood on the step while holding her under her arms. I’m a nut…I know! She was my first born and I couldn’t resist letting her have the experience of Halloween.
My middle one has a summer birthday so when she was just a few months old, I sat her in the bouncy seat in the hallway of my home and we “gave out candy together.” She wasn’t scared at all of the trick or treaters and cooed and laughed at the kids. She loved meeting new people. She had her first experience going door to door when she was just 1. My youngest is a spring baby. He wasn’t quite ready to trick or treat that first year, but by the following year he couldn’t wait to get candy in his pumpkin.
- Here’s a policeman ready to help you!
The Perfect Halloween Costume
My husband and I have a running joke that if I could squeeze one of our kids in to the Winnie the Pooh costume, I would. I loved that costume. I still have it…I think…I’m obsessed about keeping special items. I’m sure I didn’t consign the good ole Winnie the Pooh costume? Anyway, all three kids wore that once and my oldest wore it twice. Who knows maybe a grandparent will wear it someday! Talk about value for money.
But, I did buy other costumes for the kids…reluctantly. When they were toddlers and preschoolers, I helped them choose a costume. My son loved firefighters and already had a firefighter costume…so hey presto he was set. My daughters each wanted to wear princess costumes. By the time, each child was 5 or 6 choosing a costume was solely his or her decision. Here’s a list of what each kid wore for Halloweens past:
The Oldest
- Clown — 9 months
- Winnie the Pooh — 18 months
- Winnie the Pooh — 2 years
- Jane from Tarzan — 3 years — think yellow Victorian dress, straw hat, white gloves, and yellow parasol…rather than loincloth!
- Sleeping Beauty — 4 years — My girls LOVED princess dresses.
- Sleeping Beauty — 5 years — Different costume. It’s a bit crazy to buy two of the same costume, isn’t it? The things we do for our kids.
- Tinkerbell — 6 years — The only time my girls wore matching outfits
- Army Girl/USO Singer — 7 years
- Pirate Girl — 8 years — Costumes for girls aged 8 and up can be skimpy and sized small. Any costume that is a zip up the front or back one piece is sized true to form, but I have found that girls costumes with skirts or dresses are very small. Buy a size larger. You’ll save money too as your daughter will probably want to wear the costume for dress up or might use the pirate skirt as part of next year’s DIY costume.
- Witch — 9 years
- Angel/Devil with pink horns and wings — 10 years
- ?? — 11 years — By 8 or 9, most girls don’t want character costumes, but aren’t ready to do DIY costumes. I navigated a tricky road with my daughters. We stopped going to Party City as the adult costumes were so awful and completely inappropriate for kids to catch a glimpse of.
- Pajama Girl — 12 years
- Sailor — 13 years
- No costume — 14 years and on
The Middle
- Duck –3 months
- Winnie the Pooh — 1 year
- Cinderella and Magenta from Blue’s Clues — 2 years — She probably wore Magenta to trick or treat due to cold weather.
- Blue from Blues Clues — 3 years
- Tinkerbell — 4 years
- Horse — 5 years
- Unicorn — 6 years — Costume was a one-piece, zip up the front with a hood. Very fuzzy and comfy. My daughter was able to trick or treat without a coat, just wore a sweatshirt and pants under her costume.
- Unicorn — 7 years
- American Idol Singer — 8 years — This was one of those costumes where you had to look closely to see the small logo on the microphone. Most kids thought she was a cool purple witch.
- Hannah Montana — 9 years
- Candy Corn Witch — 10 years
- Pink Girl with Tutu — 11 years
- Striped Green Tights Girl — 12 years
- ?? — 13 years
- Chef Boyardee waitress — 14 years
- Candyland Dementor — 15 years
The Youngest
- Lion — 6 months
- Winnie the Pooh — 1 year
- Bob the Builder — 2 years
- Policeman and Firefighter — 3 years — My son couldn’t decide and since we had both costumes he was a policeman for the school and neighborhood parades, but he trick or treated as a firefighter
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle — 4 years
- Darth Vader — 5 years
- G.I. Joe Ninja — 6 years
- Knight — 7 years
- Captain America — 8 years
- Scary Ghoul — 9 years
- Crayola Crayon — 10 years — He paired this costume with a mustache, multicolored afro wig, and carried a plastic meat cleaver. Not sure what he was going for, but he loved it!
Or maybe you need a firefighter?
Trick or Treating
I miss the days when we had little ones and hit maybe 3 houses before calling it a night. When each child was around one years, we probably took them to one house. By 2, we hit about 3 houses. By 3 or 4, the little ones didn’t want to be left behind handing out candy with Mommy. Enter the little red wagon.
My husband — Dad Knows Better — is on year 15 or so of trick or treating detail. He missed a year one year when the kids got a chance to ride a tractor/hay ride from house to house. When he trick or treated with little ones, he used our trusty rusty…it’s metal…so trusty dusty red wagon would be more appropriate. My in laws gave my oldest the wagon when she was 1. I never realized how much we would use it. We hauled kids around the neighborhood. The kids hauled their friends up and down the driveway. We’ve used the wagon to haul trash to the curb. Now, the wagon is at our neighborhood pool. The water volunteers use it to transport iced water bottles to our timers. Timing a swim meet in the heat is exhausting.
The year I was pregnant with our youngest, Dad Knows better had the girls ride in the Fisher Price Ride-on Jeep. That was the year when I pulled one over on the girls. Oh boy did I get them! One was 4 and one was 6. It was the year of the matching Tinkerbell costumes. The girls wanted to wear their dresses and plastic dress-up shoes to trick or treat. It was a bitterly cold night. Not raining but super cold. I nixed the shoes right away. I wasn’t as successful with the “wearing of the coat.” I lost that battle after marathon tantrums from both. But I had one of the best solutions to a parent/child struggle I have ever had. I told my daughters that they could wear two hooded Disney sweatshirts under their dresses. No arguments from either of them. They happily waddled off looking like Sumo wrestlers wearing dainty off the shoulder dresses. Ha! I chuckled as they motored down the driveway in the ride on Jeep!
What is your favorite memory of Halloween?
