Halloween 2012 Part 1

Boo at Abilene Zoo

So, the little boy had asked for a GHOST costume this year, and there weren't any of the "Mummy, I want a white cloth over my head with holes cut out for eyes" variety of costumes at Wally World, so Momma had to put her amateur sewing skills to the test.

There was no way I was going to put a sheet with eye holes over the boy, and so I looked around for ideas online and came up with a home made friendly ghost costume, even if I DID end up using an old sheet :)

Not wanting to have to wait in line for tickets on the day itself, we went by the day before and got them.  The little boy didn't know what he was getting into when he let me paint his face with white face paint :)

He then proceeded to practise his "ghostly" moves.....

It turned out that it didn't help that we had bought tickets the day before. The huge line was for the people queuing up to get in, with tickets in hand! *sigh*

In the previous years, we were able to just wander around leisurely, but this time, there was a regimented line with ARROWS and "guards" at stationed strategically at intervals to try to ensure adherence to the "no wandering off" rule. Bleh. That was a real bummer, and is actually making us NOT want to come back next year.

The little boy was getting very restless ( along with just about every other little kid there that day ) waiting and inching along the painfully slow line, so we allowed him to wander a few feet away to "explore" and check out the animals.

There was even some photo op moment with some fellow ghosties!

He did have fun yelling out "trick or treat!" and getting to meet all the different characters that were out that day.

I let him have one or two different pieces of candy as we were going along, which he promptly went to show daddy :)

Of course, there were some photo op moments for Momma too :)

The line got more and more sparse towards the end, and it got to be a little bit more enjoyable, but as we were walking out, we saw that the line to enter the zoo had grown several-fold and was snaking all the way to the main road.  It was quite crazy.

I don't know if we'll be going again next year if it'll be this way, but I know that as long as he still has this amazing sense of wonderment and sees the world with such fresh and inquisitive eyes, that I will continue to have the vicarious thrill of experiencing all this through him :)