The World's Largest Halloween Party

Yesterday we took Jonathan to the Louisville Zoo for their self-described World's Largest Halloween Party. I don't know if that is accurate, but there are a lot of flippin' people there. Particularly if you went yesterday, which was the last day for it (it's every weekend in October until Halloween) and even more so because it was sunny for the first time in five or six days.

The concept is pretty simple--dress your 11 and under kiddos in their Halloween costumes and take them to the zoo for trick or treating and train and carousel rides. Since we are zoo members, the event is free so there really wasn't any good reason not to go (but for the three million other people, of course). Here is my precious little mailman standing in the massively long line of people waiting to get in. This was around 3:40 and the event started at 4:00.



Here are Daddy (dressed again in his overalls--he loves those things!) and Jonathan waiting to get started. Both of them were amazingly patient.



We headed to the train first, which was Hogwart's Express themed. The train is one of Jonathan's favorite things at the zoo; I find it a bit boring, but I was looking forward to it this time because there was a headless horseman:



I like Jonathan's face in this picture, even if there is some odd purple bluriness at the bottom. This is what he looks like every time we ride the train:



After the train, we headed into the trick or treating part. They have different themed areas--Shrek, Snow White, Willy Wonka, etc.--and stations along the way where you get candy. Here is the entrance:



Jonathan sat very nicely in his stroller and calmly held out his pumpkin for candy each time. I forgot our Pottery Barn Kids felt pumpkin so we borrowed this from Nana. It wasn't quite as cute, but it did the trick:



Each time Jonathan got a new piece of candy in his pumpkin, he would hold it up, look at me and say "Open that?" Each time, I told him to wait until we got all the candy and then we would pick a piece to eat. IT WORKED. I guess he missed us on Saturday and thought he'd better behave or we were going out of town again!

We completed our visit with a ride on the carousel. It was pretty much the same as usual but it was "spooked" so it ran backwards. The kid riding next to me told me that the zoo people had just hit reverse. I thought that sounded like as good an answer as any!



This trip was good practice for the main event--real door to door trick or treating on Wednesday night. I don't know about Jonathan but I can't wait!