Halloween Happenings

B pointed out to me that this has been the best Halloween we've had in many years! Most of our Halloweens in Seattle had been lame at best. Highlights had been work related except the one year (2006) when we threw a party with some friends. But outside of that, none of our friends threw any parties, and we didn't feel like we knew enough people to throw one of our own - especially after C& E came along. I could also count on both hands the number of trick or treaters we had over SIX years. How pathetic is that?! Since each year became progressively lamer, my zeal and excitement over Halloween dwindled along with it. Gone were the days of spending months planning our costumes, eschewing the Halloween superstore drek, and eagerly counting down the days to Halloween. Why bother when we had no parties to go to?

Well, this year that has all changed! We went to our neighbors' awesome party dressed as the Yip Yip aliens from Sesame Street. We had everyone guessing who we were and getting quite the good laugh! It was also beyond awesome to be able to just walk down the block to get to their house! Katie came over to babysit for us, and that made one less major thing to worry about. Then on Sunday, we had a wonderful afternoon hanging out with Rusti & Amanda and enjoyed some yummy chocolate caramel apples.

Yip yip yip!

"Why are you doing this to me?!"

Then Monday was the big day! I dressed Caiden in his Buzz costume and dressed myself in some variation of a witch's costume (couldn't find my darn hat!), and we went grocery shopping. He got lots of smiles and salutes from various shoppers. Later that afternoon, Cathy came over to see the boys in their costumes. :) Around 4pm, we piled the boys in the wagon and went over to our neighbors' house to meet up with the rest of the kids to have a little pre-party (with some healthy snacks!) before hitting up the neighborhood.

There was an Easter bunny, butterfly, Rainbow Brite, baseball player, some superheros, Cleopatra, and I'm forgetting many of the others, but lots of cute costumes!

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The whole crew

We left en masse and did our trick or treating together at all the houses. I loved watching Caiden go up to the door with all the kids and then run after them as we all moved on to the next house. He would thank the person at the door and then in a sing song voice call out over his shoulder "To infinity and beyond!" It was the cutest thing ever!

Hey! Guys! Wait for me!

Converging on the neighbors

Everyone found a gravestone to lie in front of

We covered several blocks and were out for about 90 minutes. I was actually surprised to hear Caiden call it quits and tell us he was ready to go home. But hey, no arguments that way! :)

We left a bowl of candy outside our door (but forgot to turn on the porch light - whoops!), and we could tell we missed some visitors. We had a few more trickle in after we got home, but the festivities ended at 7pm. It really was one of the best Halloweens we've had in quite a long time! I look forward to having fun again next year (and planning our costumes out sometime next spring!) :D You can see all the rest of the photos I posted here.