My little Halloweeners

Hey, I thought I'd put up our pictures of Halloween while it's still somewhat fresh. We had a nice Halloween -- much more candy and hoopla this year than we've had the past four years. (They don't do much for Halloween in England, as they're looking forward to Guy Fawkes day, on Nov 4... in fact, I bet people are lighting fireworks and burning bonfires and effigies over there tonight and every other night this week, just thinking about it makes me thankful to be getting a good night's sleep tonight with no loud, incessant banging of fireworks!) a picture of last year's Guy Fawkes, just for fun...
I confess, I'm out of the Halloween habit, and didn't offer up much enthusiasm for it this year. First, I missed the memo about "trick-or-treat at the Y" Halloween morning, and went to work out right while all the trick-or-treaters were arriving. Sammie and Spencer were with me, uncostumed and ready to be dropped at the childcare place which had been transformed into a Halloween-parade area. This being Samantha's first "real" Halloween, she kept asking me, "what do those people have on? what is that guy wearing? why is he looking so silly and funny?" I forfeited my workout so we could skip the pandamoneum -- and so Sammie wouldn't feel too left out because I forgot to dress her up.

In the afternoon, I called Dalana and borrowed some costume ideas from her -- some Sesame Street characters, a lady bug costume, and a cheerleader. Samantha tried on all the costumes and declared she would be Elmo! then a Ladybug! then a Cheerleader like Brie! Then... as always, she opted to be a princess.

I had to include the pictures of her as a ladybug, because she was so stinkin' cute. And, the whole time she was wearing the costume, she crawled around the house with her fanny in the air saying, "I a Ladybug!!" over and over, making me sing, "Ladybug, Ladybug, fly away home..." multiple times. (but she didn't like me to say the ladybug's house was on fire, so I had to skip that part.)
Spencer was really excited to be cookie monster, I'm sure. The blue was good with his eyes and he got tons of compliments.
Here's trying to get them to pose together...

We went to our church's "safe" trunk-or-treat party at the church car park, then came back and knocked around our neighborhood for a bit. Spencer got tuckered out and ended up asleep in the back of the car with Brian, while I walked Sam to the doors.
Sam got a little spooked by some 9- or 10-year-old kid in a skeleton mask who wouldn't talk and just stood staring down at her on someone's door step. I had to tell her several times, "He's just pretend. It's just a little boy in there. He's just being silly, etc." as she clung to my leg. I was tempted to rip his mask off and show her he wasn't really that scary, since he was kind of punky about it, just leering down at her in amused silence. But he just grabbed his candy and left, and I held my temper, and Sammie calmed down.

After the neighborhood rounds, we went to Grandpa and Grandma's house for one more round of candy and some good pictures with the cousins in their costumes. (Spence was already modeling pj's by then, so we didn't include him in the photo shoot.)


We got loads of candy out of the whole Halloween venture. Brian and I each escaped with large packs of peanut m&ms (Sam doesn't like the nuts), and some Snickers and Baby Ruths besides. Not bad. We'll probably do it again next year, maybe even with more enthusiasm and preparation? I mean, maybe I'll even humor Samantha and dress up as a princess with her (she pleaded with me to put on a princess dress several times this year, but I just don't have a princess dress right now, rats!)