Halloween happenings and Strawberry!

 Liam as a Ninja
(Because this year he became a mixed martial arts student)

Our Halloween happenings this month started off with...

...a trip to an Autumn festival where Liam got to ride a pony for the first time...in 85 degree weather, October 13th to be exact. Crazy. (Also crazy: Liam's socks-with-sandals look. Don't get me started on that.)

Liam and I kept busy making ghost lollipops with these household items...

...and they turned out like this!

We hung them on a branch that we picked up from our backyard.

 LOVE these kids!

Liam's buddy Frankenstein making a mummy out of my little Ninja

Friday night, we went to the Church's Halloween party with all of his friends from Primary where they played countless games and went on their traditional "Trunk or Treat" in the Church's parking lot (think Halloween tailgating). I actually drove the one block to participate in it this year. Everyone did a great job decorating their trunks and I discovered that I need to do a better job next year. (Sorry, no pic this time. Too dark.)

On Saturday, Bill had to work (poor, unfortunate soul). Liam and I stayed home and watched countless movies while making these treat bags for his school Halloween party. We placed the usual candy treats plus the ghost lollipops. Since it was snowing,  I opted to stay in and make treat bags out of stuff I knew we already had. I think they turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself. (Another Halloween motif on the back of the bag, too.)

Here are some pics of our window decor. A skeleton and spooky eyes which might as well pass as angry eyes for the snow we got before Halloween. (Yes, that is our garbage can out there. I couldn't be bothered to throw my winter gear on just to bring it in.) Thankfully, we got less of an inch here in NYC and it all melted before Monday. Hard to believe that two and a half weeks ago, we were enjoying 85 degree weather.

Here he is in school on Halloween Monday. He refused to take off the face mask for a good long while. I kept telling him that we needed to see his smile for the photos, but he insisted that he was really smiling. In time, it grew old for him and he finally took it off on his own, and it was a good thing too, because...

You'll never guess who we bumped into! None other than Darryl Strawberry, retired Mets and Yankees star player (and cancer survivor):

Darryl Strawberry's six foot six frame towering over little Liam.

Daddy had to get a shot with the Strawman, too!

It was so cool that he was in the neighborhood on Monday. The pre-k class was out trick-or-treating at the small mom-and-pop shops in the area, and he happened to be there in front of his restaurant. He spotted us and called out for us to get candy from him. He was super friendly and graciously accepted to have his photo taken as many times as we all wanted. All of the children were, of course, clueless, but the parents, on the other hand, were all just giddy with excitement!

Since Liam has karate on Mondays, and Halloween landed on a Monday, Liam strolled in wearing his Ninja costume, much to the delight of all four instructors. Joshu Julio Arce hammed it up, of course, and posed for a pic with Liam. The sheer joy on Liam's face is priceless.

After class we did some Trick-or-Treating in a couple of shops nearby because that's just what we do here in NYC: on Halloween, we hit up the stores we do business with daily. We get to see who really appreciates our patronage. We bumped into a karate buddy and his parents who sported fun-looking costumes. We even strolled into the local police precinct for candy. Liam has always been curious about the police and this was his big chance to see them up close. (No pic because Liam refused. He felt shy.)

We enjoyed freshly-popped popcorn and cotton candy from a local realtor, and a doughnut from D.D. (Still can't believe they gave Liam a whole doughnut.) We agreed that these were the best treats and a change from the typical Halloween candy. He didn't care for the cotton candy, but he did enjoy half of a pumpkin spice doughnut before giving the other half to his drooling daddy. He ate the popcorn on the car ride home. Then, we went to a few houses around our block and called it a night.

All in all, he ended up with pretty much the same kind of candy that we bought to give out. We really liked the Halloween stickers, erasers, pencils, fruit gummies, and mini Halloween granola bar. It was a nice surprise from the standard Halloween treats. After inspecting the evening's loot and discarding the "rewrapables" (considered unsafe), he ended up with this decent amount of treats all together. The plan is: one piece after dinner each night. Well, one can only wish.

Hope you had fun, my Ninja boy!