The Princess and the Pea

Yesterday was of course Halloween, and thus Zachary's first costume opportunity (not counting his countless cute outfits, or the Pumpkin Push race this past weekend). Meh and Zachary swung by my office in the afternoon, where Microsoft (or more specifically, my building's amazing admins) had put together a massive family-friendly party, complete with a pumpkin-carving contest that demonstrated my coworkers are as good at sculpture as programming games (scary thought), cupcakes, arts and crafts, and a fully decked out lobby (corn stalks, haunted mirrors, etc.) Of course kids were racing up and down the halls grabbing giant troves of candy that coworkers either handed out or just placed outside of their offices. I really think office trick-or-treating is the most optimal way to get the most candy in the least distance and time (and while avoiding any problematic weather to boot). Apparently our executives' building is the best of all, with full size candy bars as far as the eye can see. Still, considering the amount of candy that Zachary will actually be eating this year, I think the more minimal candy sizes are quite acceptable.

The office was strangely warm, so he didn't last in his costume all that long, but here he is, in a very cute pea-in-a-pod suit. Mommy was a princess (hm, see a theme from the Pumpkin Push?), and the two were very cute together. (Incidentally, we ran into some coworkers whose daughter was in the same pea-in-a-pod outfit, but mommy as an accessory certainly helped out our cause.) We didn't get a picture of me in my 'costume', which was an abstract audio thing (Dolby sweatshirt, multiple headphones and headsets, cables tangled around my arms, CDs hanging from a 'chain' of speaker cable around my neck, etc.). Don't worry, nobody's missing much here -- a few coworkers joked that it looked like I'd just fallen into a pile of audio cables. I guess next year I'll have to return to more traditional costume-wear.

Once we got home, I gave Zachary baffy time while Meh got the house prepped and started passing out candy to the visiting trick-or-treaters. I also walked Korby, and got to see how several neighbors went all out (there was a tunnel/cave leading to one neighbor's house, and a scary amount of fake cobwebs in front of another neighbor's house) decorating for the occasion. We ended up having a fair number of trick-or-treaters at home in the evening; Korby was of course keeping a close eye on the candy and made a few plays for our pumpkins in the front yard when I opened the door too far.