Birthday/Halloween Weekend

While Holden doesn't officially turn 1 year old until tomorrow (about 23 hours from now, to be precise), we decided to have his big birthday bash this past Saturday -- the day before Halloween. Other than being an exhausting weekend, it was very fun and Holden had a blast! Both sets of grandparents came into town to see their little guy celebrate the big day, and lots of friends (young and old ... I mean, middle-aged) came, too.

And as with every 1-year-old birthday party, the highlight of the evening was Holden's attempt to eat cake (or cupcake, in this case -- I baked pumpkin cupcakes for the event, which were good except for the frosting). To everyone's chagrin, Holden did not make a huge mess out of his cupcake and get frosting in his hair. He was a bit more meticulous at eating his cupcake, but messy nonetheless.

Sunday was Halloween, so we prepped ourselves and Holden for his first trick-or-treating outing. Holden was a monkey for his first Halloween, and super cute! He loved his costume (and he might even end up wearing it again this fall, since he seemed so cozy in it).

We headed out to my brother's house so that Holden could join his 3 cousins as they ransacked their neighborhood in search of candy. And Holden loved hanging with the older kids, especially his oldest cousin Matt who helped make sure he got candy at each house we stopped at. At the beginning, Holden had no idea what was going on, but by the third house he totally figured out this whole "trick-or-treat" thing -- that was when he toddled up to the front of the group, held his trick-or-treat bag high in the air, and made a sound that might as well have been his version of Adam Sandler's "Hey look at me! Now give me some candy!"

Even though we only stopped at 4 or 5 houses, Holden came away with a small stash of goodies (including a bunch of quarters, and a can of Pepsi ... yes, one of the houses was giving out cans of Pepsi). Before ending the night, we quickly walked down our street with Holden to stop at some neighbors' houses. Hopefully next year we will have the time to be able to decorate more for Halloween (it's kind of a big thing on our street), but our house stayed dark this year.

I'm not going to start reflecting on the year that has passed (that needs a whole other post), but it is crazy to think that a year ago Holden was a bit over 6 pounds and brand new to this world ... and now he's trick-or-treating with his cousins on Halloween.