Baby's First Halloween!

Well, sort of anyway. Amara was 9 months old last year, Michael was deployed, and the dog ended up at the emergency vet that day (the later part is like deja vu since Michael is gone yet again, and the dog was at the vet for the same problem as last year just last week.) We didn't do trick-or-treat, costumes, or anything Halloween-like for that matter. So, while it was her second Halloween technically, it was her first time getting the experience.

This year we were ready very early. I think I ordered her costume back in August even! Wanted to make sure we had time to do any exchanges we needed with the slow mail in case we got a bad costume or needed another size. We bought from halloweenexpress.com, and they stood up to their name. Super speedy service,and we got a quality costume inexpensively. They even had free priority shipping for military APO/FPO addresses! Lots of coupon codes too. I think I got 20% off on top of using ebates for cash back.

Purple witch costume!

We got to go trick-or-treat twice though. Which is really good considering Italy does not do Halloween like we do. They celebrate All Saints Day and Souls Day on November 1 and 2. They are more respectful celebrations, where they take flowers to the cemeteries and pay respects to the deceased. They do open up the base to the public for American style trick-or-treat and the Autumn Festival for them to get a taste of Halloween.

Anyway, they had an Autumn Festival this past weekend for 2 days. Day 1 they had a trick-or-treat lane. We got all dressed up, got there right at 5 when it was to start only to find the line was ridiculously long already. Poor Amara was dreadfully bored by the time we got to the front. They had everyone packed in there like sardines too. She wouldn't walk and was a little too overwhelmed to even realize what had happened. She didn't realize she had candy until we were out of the line and she had some space.

Trick-or-Treat lane. Waiting in line

Then we went and let her bounce in the bouncy house for the first time. She LOVED the boing boinging (as she called it). It was all I heard about Saturday, so she got to do it again that day. First day, they also had a talent show. We stayed for all but 2 acts of the show. Then Amara started telling everyone around us night night, so I took it that meant she was done. She barely made it to bed still awake, so I'd call the afternoon/night a success!

The second night they had a Michael Jackson and Friends show we attempted to stay for after looking around a the vendors, doing the kid's crafts, and bouncing. Italian Michael Jackson was terrible though. Couldn't even lip sync right let alone come anywhere close to his dance moves. It was actually kind of embarrassing, so we left. We went home with a caramel apple and an apple topped funnel cake though, so it was still a good night!

They had traditional door-to-door trick-or-treat in our housing complex Halloween night though. It was rainy all day, but cleared up briefly when trick-or-treat started. We got about a half hour in before the rain kicked up again. First house we got to, Amara spotted their cat. She went right for the cat and asked for it, completely ignoring the candy. Then towards the end, she started getting mad that no one was letting us inside their house and were just handing us things. I had her saying 'trick' and 'thank you' at home before we left, but she got really shy once we left our house and didn't say much to anyone (other than asking for the kitty).

Ready to go trick-or-treat Halloween night. 

Amara and Diesel checking out the candy loot. That, or the dog is just smelling her ear?