Halloween is right up there with Christmas and birthdays for kids. Even though Dom didn't really like candy all that much, he liked getting dressed up. You'll notice that his costumes get more original as he gets older, because he was able to insert his own creativity into getting ready for Halloween. 

This is our family back in Anaheim in 1997, when Dom was just a few months old.

Dom's costume was a hand-me-down from Corinne (I hope no one ever told him); and apparently the girls didn't get new costumes, but we had moved to Maryland and had all new neighbors to visit.

Dominic loved Elmo, but couldn't be talked into actually wearing the Elmo costume. We didn't push the issue. It was a warm Halloween, and Dom carried his Elmo head along with his pumpkin.

 Dom loved stuffed animals, and wanted to be a teddy bear. Luckily we found this sweet bear costume. He's eating an apple...a mother's attempt to get something healthy into his system before the candy.

Corinne was home sick this Halloween, but Dominic and Audrey hit the streets. Audrey carried an extra pumpkin to gather candy for her sister. 

In 2002, Dom had read a book series about bats (Silver Wing, Fire Wing...), so he picked this costume out of a catalog. It was a beautiful black costume with  shimmery wings. 

 So we obviously had to find a pokemon costume. I can't recall the name of this specific one, but remember him telling me it was a water pokemon.

 By this year, each of the kids was heading out in different directions with different groups of friends. But at the end of the night they would still meet up to dump out their candy and trade for their favorites. 

This was the first year that Dom took over the costume process. Notice how he's branching out from the very easy store bought costumes. He went as Indiana Jones, which was also his favorite ride at Disneyland. He carried a whip as well, but not to school...too violent. And the hat was from Uncle Steve. Laura (apparently it's Laura...not Kyle!! :)) is warming up her ninja moves on Dom.

 I have no recollection why Dominic wanted to be a chicken. But it was such a funny costume. Audrey make the feet out of foam and covered them in orange "duck" tape. I taped up his legs over sweat pants, but then he really struggled to take the pants off. It was really hilarious.

 The big feet spun around when Dominic walked. He was so amused with himself at his school parade as he clumsily traipsed around the field. He was really, really proud of this costume.

In December of 2006, Dom realized that his sledding disk would be a really cool turtle shell. For the next 10 months, he never waivered on his decision to be a turtle, and convinced his dad to help him build the sled into his costume.  

Dominic was developing into a marathon trick-or-treater. He had moved up from the small plastic pumpkin to the pillow case. He and Ben (yep, that's Ben) were out forever, proud of their stamina and endurance.