Trick-or-Treat!

This year Halloween was a bunch of fun. We have been lucky enough to spend the last two Halloween's with my Mom (last year in Alabama, this year in Virginia -- I hope it becomes a tradition). We really packed a lot of fun in preparing for the 31st.

The day before Mom arrived we got a package from her. She had bought us some new spooky holiday decor. So we immediately went about setting it up. It was a set of three spiders, the huge one had eyes that blinked red. You can sort of see them in this picture (which was taken Halloween night), the big one is on the left of the kids (you can only see its legs). (And isn't Emma so cute hugging her big brother?) It turned out great, and Sarah LOVED them. She had to go out and check on them every morning, and sometimes bring them inside to play with (especially the baby spider). (Sorry for using so many parentheses.)


We also went to the "pumpkin patch" to choose our pumpkins to carve. The kids had a blast choosing their very own pumpkin. We did go a little crazy -- we got a carving pumpkin for each person (6), as well as about 10 mini pumpkins and 6 gourds. What can I say . . . Mom brings out the craziness in me.


Then the carving commenced.


Michael and Grandma had a "great idea" to use the power drill. It actually did turn out really cool. And they had a blast doing it.


The Grove once again had a Halloween Parade which is very casual (pretty much just a walk/run around the pond with a costume on). It was very cute, and fun.



Trunk-or-Treat was also fun. But, for some reason I didn't take many pictures. It was really rainy, so we were inside for dinner. Then just ran out and stood along the sidewalk with our candy and the kids walked down the sidewalk and loaded up fast (I think the trunk-or-treating part only lasted about 15 minutes).

Finally the 31st came. We made chili for dinner topped with ghost mashed potatoes. They tasted pretty good -- and they were hilarious to try to make (right Mom?).


Then we headed out for trick-or treating (after Mom made the kids pose for way too many pictures).


Michael and Emma took off running with their friends, Ben had to keep up with them. Sarah was insistent on her own pace, so Mom and I hung back with her. After about 40 houses Emma decided her bag was heavy and that she had enough candy. Grandma took her home to pass out candy at our house. Sarah was definitely in for the candy -- she was too tired to walk from house to house, but she wasn't ready to go home. I ended up carrying her from house to house and setting her down do ring the doorbell -- Halloween is only once a year. Michael made it through the big loop and back to our house. He finished strong, but was done and ready to hand out candy for the rest of the evening (and eat his own).