The Princess and the Frog

Here's the official Halloween 2014 photo of the family - Mommy, the Princess, and the Frog.  Madison was elegant as always in her sparkly dress, and Daddy was actually quite warm tonight for the trick-or-treating.  The temperature did a plunge tonight, but thankfully, it only started to do a bit of sprinkling as we were on our way back to the house.  And what bliss to walk into a warm house with pleasant music and a roaring fire in the fireplace.  Mommy had things set up just right tonight for a perfect welcome back home.

Tonight, we were joined by Hannah, and another family:  Matthew, Ed and Christy-Anne from our church.  This was Matthew's first trick-or-treating experience, one he was anxious to try out.  "No," he told his parents earlier.  "I want to go from door to door and get candy that way."  And you should have seen him grin as he sprinted from lawn to lawn.  Madison was still running as well, hoisting her dress up like Cinderella when the clock strikes midnight.  Only Madison never changed from princess to housemaid.  She was as radiant as ever, beaming with delight at all the decorations and candy of the night.  The decorations were plenty as always, where neighbors set up elaborate inflatables and graveyards.  And there were some folks with plenty of candy to give away too.

We made our way down our street, and then the two main strips of our neighborhood - hitting jackpot after jackpot.  Lots of bonfires tonight, and lots of costumes.  There weren't that many creepy ones to contend with either, as there were mostly younger children in our neighborhood.  We finished our tour at the raptor - there's a life-sized raptor in our neighborhood each year.

Hannah is getting older, so she wasn't quite sprinting around like the others were, but she still had a great time.  And it is hard to argue with the results of all that candy!

We watched "Toy Story of Terror" together tonight, as yet another family joined us.  We invited Javier's family to stop by our driveway and use it as a basecamp for launching out for the candy raid. Mommy had hot tea there for us, and as the doorbell rang, all the kids in our house trampeled towards the door to give out candy to the visiting trick-or-treaters.

It was a really nice day, and once again the forecast of rain held off just long enough for all of us to enjoy the festivities.  Tonight, we've got the extra comforter on the bed, as that temperature is dropping down, down, down.  The wind is starting to howl, which is perfect atmosphere for this kind of night.

Madison has gone trick-or-treating three times this month.  And there is a metric ton of candy sill in the house.  Oh, what a terrible thing to have to endure together!

Tonight, we went to bed a bit later, but a happy sort of tired.  It was a perfect end to the October season, and we're quite ready for the next.  Bring on November!