Boo to You!

So the end of October is here again - to quote Paul Simon, this one "glided by like Indians." Which brings us to Madison's costume this year for Halloween: here she is, Pocahontas!

We actually got this costume last November when it was way too big. When we brought it out in May, Madison saw it and instantly knew she wanted to be Pocahontas for Halloween. For a few months now, there has been no convincing her otherwise: she was going to be the Indian Princess for Halloween.

And so the big day was upon us. Boo to you! That was the song of the season for Madison, a bit of the soundtrack from last year's incredible Halloween parade at Disney World. She loved hearing that over and over again as we drove to school - although the track is about ten minutes long!

Today, Mommy spent quite a bit of time preparing for a brief party for Daddy, where the family came over to celebrate his birthday once more. Mommy's preparations were incredible, as usual! Check out these yummy mummy pizzas:

Here's part of the setting, with "finger snacks" to the right, and "eyeballs" on a fork as well. The candied apples are there, as are the rest of the pumpkin cookies that we made the other night. Mommy made the candied apples yesterday, and we've all been itching to eat them. Is it any surprise that there are only two left now? They'll be gone tomorrow!

Check out also the marshmallow peeps on top of the cupcakes. These are in the shape of ghosts - it looks like the peeps are making the big move into other holidays!

ANYWAY, next it was time for Daddy to open some of his presents. He got a bat house, a pirate movie, a few books and - I am not making this up - a six foot inflatable cockroach pool toy. Only my sister could get something like that. This is your aunt, Madison: get used to it!

After presents, it was time for the obvious: trick-or-treating. As mentioned before, our neighborhood is the ultimate trick-or-treating experience. There are so many houses to go to that we couldn't get to them all. Madison's candy bag had to keep unloading each full load into auxiliary candy bags so that she'd be able to carry it. This year, she and Hannah were the ones driving everyone forward, racing from house to house to get the candy. And what a ton of candy there was! Many of the houses were decorated with orange lights and lots of inflatables or spider webs, and some houses had creepy music playing too. Hundreds of kids were out in the neighborhood, many from outside our community. But each one got a lot of candy, that's for sure. Madison was thrilled. She would shout out, "Trick or treat!" And then "THANK YOU!"

The weather was cold, but Mommy dressed us all up nicely so that we didn't get too cold. Still, Daddy had the stroller with us - along with a few blankets. For the long trek back to the house, Madison hopped in the stroller and covered herself with the blankets. Ah, luxury.

Everyone returned home and knocked on Mommy's door with a huge "trick-or-treat!" And then got even more candy than before. It was a pretty epic night for going out. There were lots of fun costumes, from a weird "Last Airbender" guy to an inflatable "Stay Puft Marshmallow Man." By the way, David Austen was Darth Maul, and Jonathan was... well, I don't really know what he was. Neither did he, so that made me feel better. Hannah was Angelica, from "Pirates of the Caribbean." Madison got a lot of compliments on her costume - and her manners. And Mommy heard a lot of compliments on our Cinderella pumpkin too. What a fun night!

When we were done, we went inside to sit by the fire a bit. But it was late and tomorrow is school. So we told our war stories of the night's adventure, and posed for a group photo in our costumes, happy and tired from a very special night.

Trick-or-treat!