Halloween

Happy Halloween!!

Today started with a soccer game. Two's last one 'til spring. I must say, as much as I love soccer, I am glad for this season to be over. Here in the mountains it is c.o.l.d. And honestly, at this age these kids were ready to be done about three games ago. Still fun though.

After soccer we began to get ready to go trick or treating. We had decided to go to our old neighborhood. We know everyone in every house there and felt that it would be safer (as in if some Ukrainian child happened to get lost) and easier (as in the houses are all occupied and closer together). Also, this neighborhood has a fabulous tradition of gathering beforehand for dinner. Each year a picture of the kids is taken and it is fun to compare the size of the group and the height. Thanks so much to the same neighbor for hosting year, after year, after year...

I have learned these past few days that if we want to be anywhere at a reasonable time I have to start prepping the boys about 3 hours before. So at like noon we started getting costumes ready. Go me! BoyOne decided, after everyone was already in the car, he wanted his face painted like a skeleton to go along with his pirate costume. Fine, I thought. Like Pirates of the Caribbean which I'm guessing he has never seen. There was even a picture of how he wanted it done on the package the paints came in. So, about halfway through, and 10 minutes into it, he changes his mind. AUGH!! He just wants dark eyes. Whatever. Just wipe it off and get in the car. This is seriously way more girly than I ever imagined a boy would be. Good grief. In his defense, this is probably going to be his one and only Halloween ever and I'm sure he wants it to be perfect.

We finally get back to the old hood. He changes his mind even more and wants ALL the paint off. So, instead of eating, I'm inside wiping paint off that I just painted. Whatever...

It is now time to trick or treat. It is raining and cold. Know what? They didn't even care. We were supposed to have split up, me with the littles and huz with the bigs. Somehow, we kept overlapping and I felt like I was struggling to keep track of everyone instead. So, at the end of our street I took Four and BoyTwo and Huz took the older four kids. That lasted about 15 houses and then we all were together. At the end, I took the youngest four to my neighbor's house with her kids (who we were trick or treating with) and huz, One and BoyOne kept going.

It was a successful night. The kids made out like bandits, and so did we. One does not like caramel, nuts or most chocolate. WHO'S KID IS SHE??? So we score all the unwanteds from her. The boys had a great time and were well mannered, saying thank you at each house. In the beginning BoyTwo was trying to eat each piece of candy between houses but quickly figured out that this was going to be an all night thing. He still ate a ton of candy.

It's all good, everybody had a great time, we were so glad to see old friends and we all got lots of candy and went home with tired kids. Great day.