Halloween Scrooge

I have never been a Halloween person. In fact, you could call me a Halloween Scrooge. I really, genuinely dislike the holiday. However, having a child has definitely made Halloween more fun. And I've been stoked about this year ever since a friend passed down to me the most adorable Halloween costume for Charlie - a dragon! The problem: he was afraid of it. I wrestled him into it and he screamed the entire time. So I purchased a back-up - a frog. But I really hated the frog. But when it came time for Boo at the Zoo, he was not having the dragon. Bring on the Scrooge.
I know - the frog is pretty cute too. We had fun at Boo at the Zoo. Charlie did pretty well walking and carrying his bucket, but he did have to ride in his stroller some. The real accomplishment was that we'd been working on the words "thank you." He'd been signing them for months but Halloween was the perfect time to practice saying it out loud, and he did great! This was our first year at Boo at the Zoo and it was indeed great fun!
The weekend of Halloween we had our neighborhood parade. I'll be honest - I think I may have prayed and asked God to take Charlie's fear of the dragon away. He must have heard, because Charlie only whimpered a little bit, and once he was in the costume, he was fine! Here are some more pictures:

Getting candy from Nana and Papa
Stopping for a picture during the parade:
Rick's siblings and Charlie's cousins: