Happy Halloween!

James Hardin was so excited for his first Halloween, he could hardly contain himself!

We've really been looking forward to celebrating the holidays with James this year, and even though he won't remember it, I wanted to get him involved in the festivities as much as possible.  So we bought some pumpkins.
 

I read about an pumpkin painting here, and thought it would be perfect for our little guy to try.

 

We put some duct tape on the face of the pumpkin, and Matthew drew a black cat on one, and a witch on the other.  Using an exacto knife, I cut away the tape outside of his drawing to leave a stencil.  We poured some (non-toxic, washable) paint on a paper plate, and let James at it!

 

He seemed to have more fun playing with the paint than actually painting the pumpkin, so I had to help out a little bit.  I might be a little biased, but I think they turned out fantastic!

 

 And so did we :)  We had to take a look at our handiwork in the mirror.

 Dada also carved a traditional pumpkin for us.

 The idea for James's costume started with a beret that our dear friend Kendra bought for James when she went to Paris.  We had originally thought of dressing him up as a Frenchman and giving him a  baguette to carry around, but after consulting with Halloween Queen Lindsey Boone, we decided to make him a French painter instead.

 

James and I attended the "Babies First Halloween Party" at the Children's Museum here in Madison.  There were probably between 50-75 babies there, and James made it into the top 8 for the costume contest.  The 8 finalists were voted upon by the public on the Museum's facbook page, and James ended up in 5th place.  Not too shabby!

We had planned on taking him Trick or Treating in downtown Madison and/or at a nearby mall, but James ended up taking naps during both events so we missed them.  That's okay, because he wouldn't have been able to eat much candy with his one tooth!

 

Notice any similarities bewteen James and the Jack O'Lantern??  

His tooth finally popped through on Friday.  Don't be fooled by it's small stature; that is one sharp tooth.

In other news, James has gone from doing a lot of this:

To doing this:

Today, he actually pulled himself up at the couch to a complete standing position (the first time was to grab my phone and stick it in his mouth; the second time was to play with the laptop).  He was a bit wobbly, so I didn't want to risk pulling away to take a picture or video (although I'm sure I will soon!).

Hope everyone had a fun, safe, and spooky Halloween!