Halloween Round-Up

So, Halloween was a blast this year. Unfortunately I won't be able to show you that here, as I seemed to have neglected to take any photos pretty much the entire month of October. Sorry. This baby growing business has really gone to my head lately.

The build up to All Hallow's Eve was pretty great. We went to a few costume parties, had a fun trip to the pumpkin patch, and did lots of decorating around the house. We carved or otherwise decorated about 7 pumpkins, drank lots of apple cider, and ate a variety of pumpkin flavored treats.

Sam had picked out his Halloween costume about 8 months ago, while Patchie vacillated between a few different ideas right up to the day of. First he was going to be a firefighter, then a pirate, and then a space guy. We were excited about all of these options, but in the end, he joined Sam in being a ninja. Ninja's are very big news around these parts lately. They boys are way into weapons, fighting, and super stealth adventures. I feel sort of lost in it all, but am trying to just give them their space to be little boys and keep them from hurting each other.

Jeff made it home early on Halloween night, and after a hasty dinner with Grannie and Grandpa we set out with the other 4 little boys in our neighborhood. It had been a rainy day, but we lucked out and had a dry evening. Sam was SO into it and focused on the mass accumulation of candy. He essentially ran from house to house and was always about 3 houses ahead of Patch and I. Elias was happy to take it slow and really check out all the decorations. After about two blocks he turned to me and said, "I"m ready to go home now Mom. I have enough candy." He powered through a few more houses and then he, Grannie, and I broke off from the group and headed home. We had a few groups of trick-or-treaters come to the door, which was very enjoyable for Elias. He loved seeing the kids in their costumes and giving them fist fulls of candy.

It was a great night and the boys raked in TONS of candy. Luckily there is a dentist in town that buys candy by the pound from kids after Halloween and sends it to the troops in Iraq. So, a few days ago we brought in our loot and sold eight, yes eight!!, pounds of candy to the dentist. Then we went straight to the toy store and the boys each got to pick out a small new toy to buy. And everyone went home happy!

Jeff snapped a couple of shots after he, Sam, and Grandpa got back- unfortunately Patch was already in his pjs, but the boys like to dress up on pretty much a daily basis, so I will try to get some shots of him in his costume soon.

Here is a shot of Patchie in his space guy costume. It didn't make the final cut for the big night, but he does look pretty cute in it, don't you think?


Checking out the loot.


Negotiating.

The all important stage of categorizing the candy.

Sleeping off the Halloween excitment.