Pirate Captain and Pirate Princess

Halloween 2010

We had such a great time trick or treating with the kids this year!

Last year, Caleb never got past the first house...

But oh, what a difference a year makes!

As we were walking up the stairs to our first house,

Caleb said, "This time, I am going to be brave!"

And brave he was.

His voice rang loud and clear as he said, at least 50 times that night: "Trick or treat!"

He was not shy or timid,

he took his role as the Dinosaur very seriously,

showing off his roar.

(And Lion Ariana roared only for her Daddy this time. But she did say "tickoteet" once.)

Caleb also took his role of being his sister's helper seriously -

carrying both his and Ariana's basket throughout the night

and making sure that both got filled with candy, explaining to those at the door,

"this is for the Caleb and this is for the baby."

I guess some people didn't notice the baby being carried behind him

and didn't realize why he had two baskets.

On those occasions, when only one basket was filled,

Caleb would gently remind them,

"and one for the baby" in his sweet singy-song voice.

I could just eat that kid up. He was adorable.

When he'd get his treats, he'd make comments like

"that was so nice of her" and "I like those people."

He tripped a few times in his costume, and fell over a water hose once.

He did not say a word about being hurt,

but burst into tears at the sight of his chocolates rolling all about

on the ground, out of his baskets,

crying "My chocolates, my chocolates!"

Thankfully, this problem was very easy to solve

as we quickly gathered them all up and headed on our way...

We were out for 2 hours! I'd say that's pretty good for a 3 and a 1 year old!

Butternut squash "Halloween" soup and a glowing pumpkin finished the night,

the only thing we missed was kids coming to trick or treat to our house,

we had a few late ones, but not many

- we were out so long -

but that's okay, I'm sure we'll find some good use for the leftover chocolate.

Dinosaur and Lion - Arrrgh!!

Sneak peak - The Dinosaur

Sneak peak - The Lion

Halloween 2009 - Thomas and Pumpkin

Thomas and Pumpkin

A contemplative pumpkin she is

With his Thomas costume and his Elmo bag, he was ready to trick-or-treat

(we had practiced it at home)

Or maybe not... this was the first and only house we went to and we didn't get past the bottom of those stairs... It was that lady's fault, who came out and dared to ask:

"Are you Thomas?"

I don't think he realized that he was going to have to interact with STRANGERS.

They are cute as a button

(don't tumble down the stairs, don't tumble down the stairs)

Much safer from inside the house, where he alerted Daddy

each time the trick-or-treaters rustled the leaves outside.

Still contemplative

(What is the meaning of a Pumpkin?)

Methinks, he makes a very handsome Thomas

Still saying "Balloon Festival!"

Poor child will be asking for a "Balloon Festival!" until next fall!

While lifting roundish objects up into the air!

(I'm not aware of any balloon festivals going on in the spring, but I could be wrong.)

Mommy's little pumpkin

Trick or Treat? (we shall see on Election Day)

Tonight, in the spirit of the Looming Marxist Regime, we pondered whether we should just fall in line with the logic of the masses and force all of the hard-working kids who diligently spent their night going about town, collecting their precious candy, to come by our house when their work is done and SPREAD THE WEALTH AROUND. We agreed, each of them should put 5 pieces of their candy into our goodie bag.

This would all be done in the name of FAIRNESS, of course. Because we are obviously small and frail and unwilling to traipse around town all night, collecting our own candy. So they must collect it for us.

If they don't want to do this (what?! they think this is unfair?), we would sit them down and explain to them that they already have too much candy to begin with. This is not fair. Why do they need so much? Really, they should not be so SELFISH. Be an American, already! Handing over your candy after a long night's collecting is PATRIOTIC!

Luckily, we came to our senses before this scenario played out. We hope that the country also comes to its senses before this plays out nationally.

And so, what happened tonight? We VOLUNTARILY GAVE CANDY to all that came to our house. Because we are big-hearted that way. As for our own candy-collecting activity, we agreed that if we want candy, we really need to put our shoes (and cute patriotic elephant outfit) on and walk over to at least one neighbor, which we did.