Halloweenies

Some people when they go trick or treating walk from house to house with a pillow case and go to the front door as the previous trick or treaters are just leaving.  Some go trick or treating while their parents have a block party at the end of the street, and watch as their children go safely around.  In our neighborhood you go to a grand total of 6 houses, and during that time you are offered various forms of alcohol (parents only); children are offered king size candy bars, and at that - at least one or two or a handful per house; and trick or treating includes chatting, looking at new house renovations, and seeing the various livestock everyone has.  I love this place.

This year James was a lobster and Joel Andrew was Buzz Lightyear.  James outgrew his costume sometime between when we bought it a month ago, and today.  But, that should be no surprise.
We still made him wear it, and when he did keep the hat on it was awesome.  A special thank you to the costume makers out there that make warm and fuzzy costumes so that parents no longer need to cover their children in coats.  I never understood that as a child, why put on a costume if you are just going to make me wear a coat over it?  Trick or treat - under this coat I am a pirate, but you will never know...

We chatted with our neighbors, mostly about the storm that just happened (Sandy - for prosperity I include the details, nothing happened up here but our poor friends in NY and NJ will be recovering for weeks if not months).  We lost our fence, we lost part of a tree, we lost power for a few days, but we are ok.  Everyone else seems to be ok too - which is a miracle for our neighborhood as the last big storm we averaged $50k damage a house.

James was great, trying his best to say thank you to every house and waving goodbye.  He was a natural at all of it and it is kinda spooky how well he picks up on things after just going through the motions once.

Joel Andrew was awesome.  This is the year he really gets everything to do with the holiday.  He said "Trick or Treat" unprompted, "thank you" unprompted, and was just a general joy.  This is the most fun age on so many levels because he gets it, but he is also learning so much always at the same time.

It keeps getting better and better with these two.  I hope everyone had a Happy Halloween and gets to gorge on chocolate tonight, we all deserve it!