Halloween 2013

I thought last year was fun, but this year was AWESOME!  The rain held off, the costumes were darling, and the candy was flowing!  We invited Cici (and her mom and dad) to come trick or treat at our house this year and that was a GOOD MOVE.  Sylvia loved running around the neighborhood with her best buddy, and I loved walking around with MY best buddy, so it all worked out well.  The Dads stayed home to hand out candy and the Moms braved the impending storms to take pictures and oooh and aahhh at all the teeny tiny costumes running around.  I tell ya, there are a TON of babies in this neighborhood!  Here's our night in pictures, although they're not the best.  It's hard to take pics of running kids.

Getting out the door was quite a feat.  But we did it.  And everyone ate supper.  Well, a few bites of supper, but whatever.

The first house - Margot's first official trick or treat!

She caught on really quickly and LOVED this whole idea.

Except she stopped every two feet to take inventory of her stash, so after a few houses, I took her home.

Every neighbor gave our girls handfuls of candy because they were just so darn CUTE!

Practicing our best manners!

CANDY!!!

Three families at one house!  Score!!

Miss Ann.  Our favorite.

 

Pounding the pavement...

Hustlin....

We ran into Lindsey!!  Hey, girlfriend!!!

We held up the line of trick or treaters to take pictures next to these awesome pumpkins, and apparently it just made this homeowners night!

It started raining after a good 45 minutes, so we trucked it to Gina's house to see KC (and Gina and Nick), then we trucked it back home!

We returned soaking wet and worn out (and Ann is 7 months pregnant, so....she wins!). The girls dumped their candy and wanted to dive in, but we made them change out of their wet costumes and put on their jammies first! For the last hour, the girls played, ate candy, and had a dandy old time while the adults sat DOWN, drank fancy beer, ate pumpkin muffins and chit chatted.  We are doing this EVERY YEAR from now on: inviting everyone to our house so the kids can trick or treat in the greatest neighborhood ever and the adults can "celebrate" together.

One more thing about the awesomeness of tonight - neighbors!  I'm such a humbug about Halloween.  I was a little mad when I realized that the Dads wanted to stay in and hand out candy because that meant that I and the pregnant lady had to hoof it up and down the street.  BUT, there were so many families out and everyone was so happy, and the costumes were SO cute!  I remembered that Halloween is the only time of year when we're expected to ring every doorbell in the neighborhood and actually talk to our neighbors.  Thanksgiving and Christmas bring us together as a family, and our attitude of gratefulness makes us well aware of our outside world, but on Halloween, we actually talk to strangers.  We peek inside each others' houses and learn a tiny bit more about our community. 

Up the street, there was an older couple handing out candy in their driveway, and they had a crockpot full of hot chocolate that they offered to parents.  I stood there and thanked them over and over again, then we started talking.  Just for a few minutes, but we talked.  About the neighborhood and our babies (young and old) and how much fun this night can be.  I was so grateful!  Ann and I continued on our way, watching out tiny girls run up and down every driveway, shouting "TRICK OR TREAT!!!" then shouting "THANK YOU!!" before running away toward the next neighbor.  I'm glad I was forced to go out tonight, because it ended up being pretty darn great!