I have never been a huge Halloween person but I wanted to celebrate this one because of how different it was from Halloween 2018!

Halloween 2018 was spent in the hospital with Oliver. He was admitted for his round of induction chemo and stayed until his blood cell counts recovered. He was inpatient 4 weeks straight. He was also in isolation because of a cold so he was not allowed to leave his room to walk around the halls. Even a cold can turn life-threatening for some phases of cancer treatment so the hospital is very strict about keeping sick kids away from other children in the cancer unit.

Oliver (13 months) dressed up as a Nebraska Football player during his first inpatient stay in October, 2018

Oliver still can’t be out in public because he is immune compromised from transplant, but he was able to dress up and spend some time with his cousins! I wasn’t able to be with Eliza last year on Halloween since she only came down to Seattle on the weekends so this year was extra special since I could see how excited she was to Trick-or-Treat!

Eliza and Oliver both dressed up like bumblebees. Eliza decided to switch costumes with Oliver last minute so he ended up with the more girly looking costume. We went downtown Lynden with Eliza for trick-or-treating which was CRAZY busy! Eliza had a blast though! She was exhausted by the end and even said “Mom, I think I got enough candy, can we go back to the car so I don’t have to walk any more?” (Side note: Eliza does seem to have more energy after finishing chemo – she dropped her afternoon nap about a week after finishing her last chemo treatment!)

Woods Coffee was giving away free kids hot chocolates on Halloween!

At night we were not planning on going around our neighborhood for trick-or-treating but we have a perfect neighborhood for it so after dinner we bundled up the kids and went to about 5 houses. We pulled Oliver in the wagon to watch and let Eliza go up to the doors to knock. Eliza was so excited that the neighbors were giving out treats! When we got home she asked, “Will tomorrow be Halloween too?”

Things are still so uncertain right now with Oliver but we are trying to fully take advantage of every family moment we have at home together! I would say Halloween 2019 was 1000x better than Halloween 2018!