Halloween, Brook Hollow style...

Look at those muscles!

Last Sunday (October 27th), we took the little guy to a Halloween party at a local country club. 

We were running a little late because Trevor and I were unaware that Banner did not like his WEARING his costume.  He seemed excited about the idea of the costume, but put it on him and he'd run around saying "all done, all done, all done" (because he lacks the vocab to say, "Get this effing thing off me NOW!"). 

To be fair, the Thor suit was a little snug in the shoulders.  Which is insane since it is a 4T and Banner isn't even two yet. 

But I digress.  There were elements of the costume that Banner really enjoyed, like his "BOOM! BOOM!" (hammer).  And parts that he wouldn't even consider wearing, like his helmet.  Case in point:

Seriously.  The image on the right is the ONLY picture in existence of Banner dressed as Thor with both the helmet AND hammer in it.  And he isn't even holding the hammer.

Since he refused to wear his costume in the car, we had to wait to dress him upon arrival.  It helped that all the other kids were dressed up, but you could tell Ban still wasn't completely sold on the whole idea.  In fact, I think the only reason he kept it on as long as he did was because I told him he had to wear it if he wanted to go outside and play. 
 

Which is probably why he looked like this when we first walked out on the patio:
 

Not so sure about this, you guys.

 

 

But "Thor" soon recovered once he discovered all the games and activities.  There was so much to do!

 

 

Of course, he wanted nothing to do with anything once he discovered the bounce house.  Which TERRIFIED me because of all the big kids inside rough housing.  But Banner was undaunted, walked right up to it, took off his shoes and socks and climbed inside.

At first he lingered near the entrance, but eventually worked his way to the other end.  As a final obstacle, the exit to the bounce house was a giant six foot inflatable slide.  Once Banner knew the slide was there, there was no keeping him away.  I lost count of how many times he crawled through!

And he wasn't unscathed, either.  Ban was constantly getting bounced upon by other kids or knocked down.  He even split his lower lip open at some point, but didn't shed a tear.  The boy is all about keeping up with the big kids.

(Seriously.  The kid is BRAVE.  No idea where he got that from!  Trevor and I were just accident prone.)

After watching Banner risk life and limb for nearly an hour, I caught him at the bottom of the slide before he could run around and climb back in for another go.  His diaper felt pretty full and it seemed wise to take care of that before dinner.  Secretly, I think Banner was relieved to have a reason to stop the bounce house madness.  He didn't protest once and calmly let me carry him to the women's locker room.

After I got the little tyke cleaned up and out of his costume, it was dinner time on the porch:

Banner's favorite food were the meatballs.  I was partial to the fried pickles.  ;P

As a party favor, mom had made a goodie bag for Banner complete with treats, sticker and - Banner's all time favorite BFF - ELMO.  The best thing about this Elmo is that he doesn't do anything, and is small and soft enough to be Banner's newest bedtime buddy.  He is also a much convenient size...you know, for those times that Elmo absolutely MUST join us in the car to run errands.  "Other" Elmo is longer than Banner and randomly starts snoring.

Instant buddies.

It was a very fun afternoon we the added perk that it completely wore our little Ban-Man out.  Bounce houses and Halloween parties are seriously the things DREAMS are made of.  I think he slept for 14 hours straight!  Bliss!