Halloween

We started celebrating Halloween early this year, as Caitlin's first Girl Scouts event in mid-October called for costumes.  This year, Cate decided to be Pinky Pie, one of the My Little Ponies, and Isaac was a Mirrored Ninja with 2 swords (obviously cooler than any other kind of Ninja). Here are some pics from that first event, which included a crazy lady dressed up as a kids' storyteller, a potato sack race, and other random fun activities.

The second costume event, was Isaac's second grade music performance.  Here he is with the rest of the second graders, singing Halloween songs to a cafeteria full of parents.  Super-cute.

Take 3 - kids got to wear costumes to school on 10/30.  In a continuing theme of no respect for working parents, the school had a costume parade for the parents at 9:15, and class parties at 10.  It was amazing how many kids had both parents there - I don't think attendance will be that much better for their high school graduation! In any event, Bill and I were able to make it for the parade and a few minutes of the class parties before having to head to work.  This worked fine for the kids, who both agreed that their chances of eating more than one treat each were significantly higher if we didn't stay for the whole party.  Smart kids :)

Finally, the official day!  The kids' doctor held a flu shot  (or as Isaac and Cate keep calling it "fluid shot") clinic on Halloween of all days.  They were brave (Isaac in particular, because his asthma precludes him from getting the mist, so he actually got a shot) and earned chocolate croissants from Moxie before heading home to make Halloween treats (cupcakes with Grandma and "pumpkins" (oranges with string beans) with me) and play outside for awhile.  Hard not to take advantage of the 70 degree sunny weather!

Then we all got dressed up and headed to the Sambur's for the first party of the night.  There were lots of people there, all dressed up and eating / drinking well.  We had fun there, especially with the Samburs and Reisses, but were excited that Grandma, Aunt Alli, Uncle Chad and Seb came to meet us for some early trick or treating.  The kids had a blast racing from one house to the next (Seb did a great job keeping up), as we trailed behind surveying the insanity.

At around 6:30 we headed back to our neighborhood to man our house's candy bowl, and check out what all the neighbors were giving out.  We didn't have to go much further than our street -  there were so many fun decorations, haunted garages, and overly generous candy-givers (and jello shots!) that we all had fun.  By 8:45, the kids had already inventoried their candy, and decided they had enough. They collapsed on the couch of one of our neighbors and asked to be done!  Mission accomplished!