Halloween Happenings

We had such fun yesterday! Even with all the yucky decorations, gross costumes, and general bad stuff associated with it, I still love this holiday. It may have something to do with the fact that I was born on Halloween, but I think it's more than that. I have great memories of dressing up, running around the neighborhood after dark with my friends, and all that free candy - and now I get to enjoy my kids' excitement over the same things. This morning there was a major candy inventory and swap going on around our kitchen table. I can remember doing the same thing with my sister..."I'll trade you two Sweettarts for a Snickers..." Good times!


Since it was my birthday yesterday, I met my friend Kimberly at Starbucks after getting the kids off to school. This was actually my first ever visit to a Starbucks, since I'm not a coffee drinker. I had a hazelnut hot chocolate that was pretty good, and some pumpkin bread that was fabulous! After that I spent a leisurely few hours running some errands and shopping. I have to say it was a little disconcerting to walk into Wal-mart on Halloween and be greeted by a ten foot Christmas tree! I guess I've gotten numb to all the stores putting out Christmas stuff before Thanksgiving, but I thought they usually at least waited until the week after Halloween!


After school, the kids got dressed in their costumes for a photo shoot in the backyard.

The swashbuckling pirate, the Jedi knight, and their spooky sister:

After taking pictures, we headed to a neighbor's house for a pre-trick-or-treating pizza party.

Here's Camden with his friends, Elisabeth and Blythe:

In between the pizza party and trick-or-treating, we squeezed in a little birthday celebration:

Then we were off for marathon trick-or-treating, starting at our next door neighbors' house:

We covered a lot of ground in our neighborhood this year. There are a lot of families with kids, so it was really like a big block party. Between us talking with adults we knew and Camden carrying on a conversation with everyone who gave him a piece of candy (that doesn't surprise anyone, does it?!), it took us awhile to make the rounds. Camden even earned a few extra pieces of candy with his charming ways, and he wasn't shy about letting everyone know how much candy he got at each stop!


After we got the spooks off to bed, Robert massaged my poor aching feet (remind me to wear tennis shoes next year!). Since I share my birthday with the a holiday that's primarily for the kids, Robert is extending my celebration into today. He served me French toast in bed this morning, he's checked a couple of things off my honey-do list this afternoon, and he's taking me on a date tonight - how did I get so lucky?!