Super Why Halloween

Wow. We didn't know how well he actually knew who Super Why was brought to you by until we did this video and looked up what was actually said. He had it nearly word for word. The only part he missed is at the very beginning where it says "Super Why was funded by" instead of "brought to you by." We've noticed that he has quite a gift for memorizing things. He can basically quote the first ten minutes of various episodes of different cartoons from memory, including sound effects.

As you may have guessed, our family were the PBS's Super Why and the Super Readers for Halloween this year. Ethan has been planning this for about 12 months. He was Super Why, Jen was Wonder Red, Kyle was Alpha Pig, and Brooklyn was Princess Presto (Caucasian edition).

We had a few close calls that almost ruined all of our plans. The first near-catastrophe happened two days before the big day. Ethan got a small owie on his finger. He was approached Jen genuinley concerned that, "Super Why doesn't have an owie on his finger." Luckily, the owie healed in time.

The second close call happened Saturday Morning. Jen made Ethan's costume from scratch, and she put the Super Why logo on his shirt the night before. She used an iron-on aplique that is printed on special paper for the book on Super Why's shirt. When Ethan saw it, he burst in to tears, exclaiming, "That's the wrong book!" He knows that the real Super Why's book doesn't say "Super Why" on it - it's just the book. We figured it would be better to use the one we did so more people would recognize who he was. He was so upset he almost gave up on being Super Why and wanted to be Mr. Incredible instead. WOW. After about fifteen minutes, Kyle convinced him that it would be OK (for those familiar with the cartoon, Ethan agreed that the letters would be the "Super Letters" that give the "Super Story Answer").

All day, he kept changing between Super Why and Whyatt, his alter-ego. In the process, his mask got very stretched out.

Both kids had a good time Trick-or-Treating, although both kids took a little while to get the hang of it. At the first few doors, Ethan refused to say "Trick or treat." Jen told him to pretend he was saying it to her instead. On the next few stops, he looked at Jen, said "trick or treat," then looked at the people answering the door.

Brooklyn didn't really get the idea of getting lots of candy. Once she got her first piece, she wanted to eat it and wasn't intested in getting any more. She eventually caught on, and wanted to have a taste of each new piece of candy. She handed us many half-eaten suckers.

After we had been out for half an hour, Ethan asked, "Can we stop going to houses to get treats?" He was tired and wanted to go home.

This year the kids had their own pumpkins. Kyle made Brooklyn's (on the right), since she didn't have much interest in helping. Ethan (on the left) helped clean it out - he used a spoon and extracted four seeds, and he drew the face with a marker. The face he drew was much too small to actually carve, so Kyle had to make it bigger, but this is pretty close to what he drew.

Friday we took the kids to Wheeler Farm in Murray. We all had a lot of fun. Brooklyn walked through the pumpkin patch trying to pick up pumpkins. She squatted down, grabbed ahold, and tried to pick one up. When she couldn't do it, she exclaimed, "heavy."

The corn maze was pretty pathethic. It was more like a weed maze. They only made us pay for Ethan's admittance, but we still felt like we got ripped off. Jen's exact words were, "I want my giggle back." (referencing Thumb Wars)
Before we went to the farm, Ethan drew a map so we wouldn't get lost in the maze. He kept checking it throughout.

Brooklyn was obssed with picking up rocks and giving them to the animals.

She had fun petting this goat and wished she could touch all of the animals.

The ducks weren't too happy when she tried to pet them. The expression on her face here is priceless. Click on the picture to see it bigger.