All Aboard!

The Riggins Express came to town last night, and boy was it a fun ride!  

At the risk of all-out cheesy sappiness, I'm just going to say it: last night was one of those nights where being a mom is just magical.  Getting my little guy all dressed up, watching him toddle around the neighborhood, reach into a huge bowl of candy with wide eyes of disbelief, and say "Bye Bye" to the generous neighbors just made me beam with joy.  As evidenced by my somewhat psychotic stage-mom face in the photo below.  Yikes.  

  

But seriously...this little boy is worth some joy and excitement, don't you think?  

I was fully prepared for him to want nothing to do with his costume, and to spend the evening walking alongside my little engineer holding his locomotive.  Much to our surprise, he wore the whole getup the entire night!  

Most of the families in our church community group live in our neighborhood, and a couple of families live on the same street.  We headed their way to trick-or-treat with the whole gang.  

We wrapped up our trick-or-treating just as my usual Jazzercise class was getting out.  I knew my Jazzercise friends would love seeing Riggs all dressed up, so we stopped by.  Everyone had been encouraged to dress in costumes for class, so here is Riggins with some of the ladies in costume!    

The great thing about this costume was that it will now make a fun toy!  I am all about the cheap, homemade costume.  My mother-in-law had sent him the overalls, and that was the inspiration for the whole thing.  

 The only thing I had to purchase was the hat (from a local model train shop) and a couple of cans of spray paint!  The train itself is just a diaper box, an oatmeal can, a couple of cut-up cereal boxes, and some fiberfill left over from a sewing project.  The light is just one of those battery operated push lights that we were using in a closet.  All you need is a box knife, some packing tape, and a hot glue gun to get it all together!  (I embellished with some foil on the wheels, some gold acrylic paint that I already had, and a Union Pacific logo that I printed off the internet.)

 I used this tutorial for inspiration when getting started, and I started and finished it in one afternoon nap time...super simple!  If your little one likes trains, this might be a cheap and easy project that they would enjoy any time of year!  

  

I know some folks out there aren't big on the whole Halloween thing, but I say what can be wrong with dressing up your kid, taking some fun photos, mingling with your neighbors, and getting some candy out of the deal?  Jonathan and I capped off the evening by greeting a few trick-or-treaters of our own, then watching Harry Potter while eating caramel apples.  

A magical night, indeed.