Halloween for ALL!

What a wonderful weekend of laughter, happiness, fun and surprises! We don't get many weekends like this. Most times it's kids who are struggling to have a good day as routine is changed for the week. But this weekend, we celebrated eight years of blessings with Evan in our lives. We celebrated, Chris standing next to me (our "non-verbal"son) and count from one to ten like it was "normal"......I sat and looked over at my husband and said "did you just hear Chris?"
He looked at me and said "wait that was Chris? I thought it was Evan!" As you can imagine we cheered Chris on and celebrated his progress and loved every ounce of happiness that he showed as we cheered him on. This seems to be his "break out" year. So many milestones that he is finally meeting. In a way we feel overwhelmed with how much he has progressed in the last few months. Should we dare get him a Halloween costume and see if he will wear it and go trick or treating? Will it be too much for him to handle? It's worth a shot I guess. I guess that is for another post. Yes?
Another fun thing we did this weekend is we as a family went to the Pumpkin Patch to pick out the pumpkins. It's moments like this that we cherish, when we can go together as an entire family on an outing. We of course worry about overload and meltdowns. Evan was so excited and began to wander around looking at all the pumpkins making sure that whatever pumpkin he chose it's the perfect one. Chris held my hand and we walked around. He was gracious about posing to allow us to take pictures of him and Evan. Even with all the other people, the sound of traffic as it drove by, he stayed so calm. He not once chose to dart away or run off. He just looked and walked with me. I said, "pick out your pumpkin!" and you know what! He did! It was just perfect! It was a good outing for all of us. And for that I thank God for it.

So after all that fun, we went home and looked for ideas to carve into the pumpkins. Chris chose a cute Mummy, and Evan chose Masterchief from Halo. Dear Lord that was a hard one! 

Okay so the last one was Mommy and Daddy's pumpkin.....and of course the boys may have picked out the designs, they would not go near the inside of those pumpkins. Maybe next year, they passed again this year! We had a great time either way. 

Ahhh...the final point for today is, it's almost Halloween. With that in mind, if you have a child with Autism, share with others the following, if you are someone who doesn't have a child with Autism, read it, and share it with others. I hope and pray that ALL children are able to enjoy Halloween this year, and hope that everyone gives that understanding to our children and be kind to them! 

Have a great Halloween!