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Trunk-r-Treat
Every year for Halloween, our church does Trunk-r-Treat, where church folks volunteer to dress up their vehicles (and themselves) and distribute candy to the church kids out of their trunks. They block off the street behind the church and have all kinds of other events: a petting zoo with a cow, goats, sheep, and a Shetland pony; a firetruck that the kids could sit in; a fire eater/spitter/juggler; a stilt walker with a broken arm (don't try this at home, kids); pony rides; other assorted games and entertainment.
These days, we are at the church 5 days out of 7 every week - MOPS on Monday mornings, Mother's Day Out on Tuesdays and Fridays, choir on Wednesday nights, and church on Sundays, so needless to say, we ran into lots of familiar faces. Here's Alex introducing his horse (aka "Horsie") to his friend, Firefighter Cooper, Dallas FD.
We also ran into Fairy Princess Charlotte, where Alex proceeded to demonstrate why cowboys always wear hats.
Alex's friend Jaron was there, too, doing his best Tigger impression.
Once he was done socializing, we made our way down to the petting zoo. It only made sense that the cowboy should start his day by checking on the cows.
Once he was satisfied that the cows were A-ok, we moved onto the fire truck. To say that Alex is "obsessed" with vehicles would be quite the understatement. This child spends 95% of his day talking about trains, excavators, dump trucks, fire trucks, airplanes - you name it. Well, to be fair, he could care less about a mini van or a station wagon or a VW bug. But anything else is pretty much fair game. He points out every Mack truck, school bus, digger, garbage truck, and motorcycle that he can spot out the car window, and I find myself doing the same because he gets so excited. So he was pretty stoked when he saw the fire truck and found out that he got to sit in it, if only for the four seconds it took me to take the picture.
From there, we moved on to the "treat" portion of Trunk-r-Treat, starting with what ended up being Alex's favorite treat of the day - an apple. Yes, an apple. He was more excited about that apple than any of the lollipops, candy bars, fruit snacks, or Tootsie Rolls that ended up in his bucket.
His next plan of action? To stop and shoot the breeze with the cute cowgirls, of course.
From there, A helped his fellow cowpokes hammer them nails into that there two-bah-four.
Then off to do a little fishin'.
And finally, la pièce de résistance - the pony rides. I mean, is there a more appropriate way for a cowboy to end his day than to ride off into the sunset? This would be Alex's very first time on a horse, and while he was very excited as we waited in line, we were anxious to see how he would react once he actually got up on one of those big hairy beasts. 
Like any good cowboy, he was a natural. He looked a little surprised right when the horses started to move, but was grinning ear-to-ear within seconds.
Timothy walked alongside him, just close enough to catch him if the horse decided to bail but far enough that A was riding completely on his own.
He loved every second of the ride and totally lived up to his costume. 
As expected, he was less than thrilled that we made him get off at the end of the ride. We told him that if he wanted to wait in line again, then he could have another ride. He agreed, so we got back in line, he munched on his apple to pass the time, and finally got back on his horse.
By this time, things were winding down and they were starting to move the horses into their trailers. So A gave his horse a nice pet goodbye, and we headed home. 
We considered this to the Main Event this Halloween, so other than some Halloween festivities at Tim's office the following weekend, this pretty much ended Halloween for us this year. I think it's just going to get more exciting each year, although I'm already dreading the inevitably dreadful costume requests that A will start to throw at me once he realizes that he has a choice in such matters. Hopefully he'll never come to that realization...a mom can dream...
These days, we are at the church 5 days out of 7 every week - MOPS on Monday mornings, Mother's Day Out on Tuesdays and Fridays, choir on Wednesday nights, and church on Sundays, so needless to say, we ran into lots of familiar faces. Here's Alex introducing his horse (aka "Horsie") to his friend, Firefighter Cooper, Dallas FD.
We also ran into Fairy Princess Charlotte, where Alex proceeded to demonstrate why cowboys always wear hats.
Alex's friend Jaron was there, too, doing his best Tigger impression.
Once he was done socializing, we made our way down to the petting zoo. It only made sense that the cowboy should start his day by checking on the cows.
Once he was satisfied that the cows were A-ok, we moved onto the fire truck. To say that Alex is "obsessed" with vehicles would be quite the understatement. This child spends 95% of his day talking about trains, excavators, dump trucks, fire trucks, airplanes - you name it. Well, to be fair, he could care less about a mini van or a station wagon or a VW bug. But anything else is pretty much fair game. He points out every Mack truck, school bus, digger, garbage truck, and motorcycle that he can spot out the car window, and I find myself doing the same because he gets so excited. So he was pretty stoked when he saw the fire truck and found out that he got to sit in it, if only for the four seconds it took me to take the picture.
From there, we moved on to the "treat" portion of Trunk-r-Treat, starting with what ended up being Alex's favorite treat of the day - an apple. Yes, an apple. He was more excited about that apple than any of the lollipops, candy bars, fruit snacks, or Tootsie Rolls that ended up in his bucket.
His next plan of action? To stop and shoot the breeze with the cute cowgirls, of course.
From there, A helped his fellow cowpokes hammer them nails into that there two-bah-four.
Then off to do a little fishin'.
And finally, la pièce de résistance - the pony rides. I mean, is there a more appropriate way for a cowboy to end his day than to ride off into the sunset? This would be Alex's very first time on a horse, and while he was very excited as we waited in line, we were anxious to see how he would react once he actually got up on one of those big hairy beasts. 
Like any good cowboy, he was a natural. He looked a little surprised right when the horses started to move, but was grinning ear-to-ear within seconds.
Timothy walked alongside him, just close enough to catch him if the horse decided to bail but far enough that A was riding completely on his own.
He loved every second of the ride and totally lived up to his costume. 
As expected, he was less than thrilled that we made him get off at the end of the ride. We told him that if he wanted to wait in line again, then he could have another ride. He agreed, so we got back in line, he munched on his apple to pass the time, and finally got back on his horse.
By this time, things were winding down and they were starting to move the horses into their trailers. So A gave his horse a nice pet goodbye, and we headed home. 
We considered this to the Main Event this Halloween, so other than some Halloween festivities at Tim's office the following weekend, this pretty much ended Halloween for us this year. I think it's just going to get more exciting each year, although I'm already dreading the inevitably dreadful costume requests that A will start to throw at me once he realizes that he has a choice in such matters. Hopefully he'll never come to that realization...a mom can dream...
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