Halloween

We had one of the best Halloween's in my life last night. And the few days leading up to it were pretty fun too. My sister Kate is visiting, and she LOVES Halloween. So it has been like a Halloween fairy has visited, bringing lots of holiday cheer with her. She carved pumpkins, made mummy hotdog wraps, played hours of zombie with the boys, and just generally made it all fun.

Last night was a mad rush for the door. We were eating dinner and the neighbors kicked on their loud Halloween mood music. The boys (Colin and Andrew) went INSANE. Unfortunately, I still needed to feed Michael and lay him down so that I could go walking around with them. So while I was upstairs, Jeff and Kate somehow managed to wrangle the 3 kids into their costumes. In the midst of this, neighbors began coming for candy. Which Jeff had hidden from me...and since I was upstairs, I missed the grand reveal of his hiding place. DARN!

I rushed downstairs and we began the walk. Lily had been prepped earlier in the day, but there's no way she comprehended what was about to happen. She followed Andrew and Colin to the first house, and said her "Trick or treat"...which didn't quite sound like that, but I can't figure out a way to type it the way she said it. After receiving her mini bag of M&M's, she was finished. So I put her in the stroller and we went to the next house. She said trick or treat from the stroller and was given another treat. HOLD THE PHONE. The next house she was a bit more enthusiastic. And by the 4th house, she was out of the stroller and charging up to doors with her brother and cousin. She wasn't afraid of other kids, or scary music, or big inflatable Jack-o-lanterns. She charmed everyone with her little "Tank-oos" after each treat. She must have done 15 houses without complaint. Seriously, her almost 4 year old cousin puttered out before her. She was on fire.

Andrew and Colin were cute too. Colin got props for the best costume. Everyone was commenting on it. Although Kate was a big upset that everyone was calling him "Maverick". She preferred "Goose", thank you very much. Andrew made me proud...he waited for us slowpokes without complaining, he didn't cry when there were no Skittles to be found anywhere, he was just fun fun fun. He was a bit intimidated by the other kids, but not the houses. No worries, next year Lily will protect him ;) Even I was amazed at the sheer volume of chocolate for this poor boy. He does NOT like chocolate. So when we went through his bag, he was left with a few rolls of Smarties and a sucker. But no complaints or whining. I think I may just go out and buy him a stinkin' bag of Skittles.

After the sugared up kiddos went to bed, Kate, Jeff and I had some spiked coffee and relaxed. But even though we went to bed late and with lots of excitement...I am up listening to my 2 oldest in the monitor at 5:45. They are sharing a room this week (Kate and Colin are bunking up in Andrew's room). They are having fun...a little too much fun. My light sleepers wake each other up with every cough and snore...and are more than happy to talk and sing to each other rather than sleep. So far they haven't been too grouchy during the day...just Mommy is.

I hope you all had a nice Halloween also! I will post pictures of my Cookie Monster, football player/ninja, and leopard when I finally get that program up and running on our new computer. And I must post pictures of Mikey sitting up...he looks so grown up! Finally, I will be trying to post every day in November...just as a fun challenge. I just love disappointing myself, so let's set it up ;)