Thursday, October 31st - Halloween!

Halloween finally arrived!!  The kids couldn't focus on much else all day and I wonder how/why regular schools even stay open on Halloween and the day after ;-)  It was all I could do to get the girls to plow through their material!  Lincoln was feeling much better but just not quite back to his usual self.  Jim and I discussed and were on the fence about whether he should go or just stay home for more rest... ultimately though, the poor kid was so despondent at the thought of missing out, so we came up with a good solution: we would take him in the wagon and he couldn't run door to door, but the girls would share their loot with him.  This ended up being perfect, as we kept Lincoln isolated in case he was at all still germy and he still got to experience the festivities.  We met up with a few families to partake in the evening's fun as we descended upon our favorite neighborhood for trick-or-treating!

The kids asked me every 15 minutes from noon onward, "How many minutes until we can put our costumes on!?"  The time arrived and they were all but bursting with excitement and anticipation!  I have wizened up from previous years and knew to take the pictures here at home when they are comparatively calm instead of when we are with friends ;-)  My lovely fairy, James Rogers (Captain America's son), and the pink ninja!

I must have snapped about 20 photos of all four kiddos together and these are the only two usable ones.  In this one, all are looking at me, but Waverly's bottle top hat was squishing her eyes so badly! lol

Of course, it's never truly a family picture until at least one animal comes over and is all, "Hey, what are you guys doing? Nothing important, right, so I'll just stand in front in a way that you can't even crop me out."

These two! My heart can't even handle it :-)

The kids pointed out that I was the only one not in costume, and volunteered that I could just be a witch since "I was already in black."  Thanks guys :-p

We met up with the Young, Phillips, and Cerdas families and after the kids patiently (I use the term loosely) allowed us to take one group photo, they were off and running - literally.

First house of the evening!

It would seem the wagon was a good call, as after about twenty minutes or so, James Rogers declared he was going to lay back for a bit and then he promptly powered down.  He snoozed as soundly as if he was on a feather bed in a quiet room! lol  

Fortunately, Captain America was fully prepared to helm the wagon and did an excellent job pulling him all around the neighborhood loop :-)

All in all, I think we trick-or-treated for just under an hour and a half - the kids had loads of loot and we made it back to the vehicles just in time to avoid getting rained on!  Perfect timing :-)  On the drive home, Waverly was none too pleased about the dark vehicle so we turned her spotlight on.  This afforded me the opportunity to watch her studying her fingers.  It was so precious to see her purposefully controlling each finger - it appeared as though she were counting!  Such a fun stage she is in, discovering new things every day.

Home and washed up, the kids gathered in the living room where we had dumped all of the candy they collected.  Each one was able to select four pieces to eat as they wound down from their big, exciting evening.  Happy Halloween!