Family Treat Night 2012

We have decided to skip celebrating that one holiday that happens at the end of October, with one possible exception depending on how you view it.  One event we look forward to each year is "Family Treat Night" at Baylor.  For two hours, they invite the kids and grandkids of Baylor Faculty and Staff to visit a dorm in costume and interact with/get candy from the students.  As a student, I loved participating in this event and missed it when I didn't live in the dorms anymore.  LittleBear loves seeing students on campus and this is the only chance he gets to go inside a dorm, so we make an exception.  Plus, it's just fun. 

Admittedly, LittleBear has very little knowledge of TV, movies or what is on.  He likes Sesame Street (we have one DVD), Boz (I think we have four DVDs) and the only movies he has ever seen all the way through, Toy Story (specifically, Toy Story 2).  Since LadyBear took a little longer to join us than I thought she would I found I had a bit of extra time on my hands, so I decided to make costumes for the kids.  My mom did an amazing job growing up of making our costumes each year (THANK YOU SO MUCH, MOM!) and I really appreciated (even more so now) the time and effort she poured into them.  It was a bit tricky as I had no idea what size LadyBear would be and I needed to go with costumes that were fast, not too complicated and mostly used materials I already had on hand to keep costs down.  (Thank goodness for felt, my new favorite fabric.  You don't have to hem it and it's super durable!)  All that combined with LittleBear's interests and we came up with Sheriff Woody and Jessie the Yodeling Cowgirl. 

It turns out it was a good choice because when we asked LittleBear who he might like to dress up as, he said Buzz or Woody.  He was so excited when he found out I was working on a Woody costume for him and a Jessie costume for Little Sister!

My favorite little Sheriff!

Our little cowgirl

We got the chance to go through Ruth Collins Hall (all six floors!) where the residents of each floor decorated according to the theme of a different Disney movie.   LittleBear was so happy to discover there was a Toy Story floor.  A group of gals even had the theme to Woody's Roundup playing, which is a song that LittleBear really enjoys (he walked up and said "It's the Rootinest, Tootinest song!").  He stopped a while and danced with them (see below), which was really cute.  Apparently, the gals even thought so because they were pulling out their phones to snap a picture just like I was with my camera.  It really was cute!

Woody's Roundup Dance Party

We strolled through the halls and often heard exclamations from parents, kids and students of "It's Woody!"  Then "Aw, look at the baby! She's Jessie!" when I followed with LadyBear in her stroller. 

Choosing a piece of candy from a student on the Monster's Inc floor

LittleBear commented "That was SO fun!" as we were leaving so I am certain we will be doing this again next year.

As an aside, we don't let LittleBear have ALL the candy he gets on one of these evenings (especially from six floors)!  We weed out the things he just can't eat (jawbreakers, tootsie rolls, taffy, and peanut related candies), then Jeff and I have a "Candy Draft" after LittleBear goes to bed to go through those weeded out items.  Whatever is not chosen is pitched.

Big Brother got smiles :)

And we were also treated to a yodel from the Yodeling Cowgirl herself...