A Fairy Good Halloween

This is easily one of my favorite pictures of Madison.  She's about to go out trick-or-treating here, all dressed up as a blue fairy.  Not a butterfly, she'd correct you.  She's a fairy, made obvious by the fact that she's carrying that wand there.  It glows in the dark, a little gift from Mommy before going out on the night's adventure.

Note the pumpkin to the left.  Madison's was slightly rotting from a week ago, and Daddy's "Linus" pumpkin didn't make it even to Wednesday.  That said, we had an extra pumpkin to carve, so Daddy did a carving of a Minion that turned out pretty decent.  You'll see that as the sun goes down a bit.

In the meantime, let's go do some trick-or-treating!

Aunt Shain and Nana came along for the trip this year, and it was lots of fun.  It was chilly outside, but that's exactly what October is supposed to feel like, isn't it?  The thing is, it was supposed to be raining. Again, we find that it was supposed to be raining, and again we find that the weather held out long enough for the kids to go and do their thing... and then it rained.  And yes, it poured through the night.

So we marched along, getting farther this time than we have in previous years.  Madison was quite eager to go from house to house, and this year, the neighborhood was absolutely packed with people.  Streets were filled with trick-or-treaters, and we pitied anyone who actually lived on that main strip who actually wanted to drive anywhere, because there were so many cars in the road, all moving along slowly for one reason or another.  That never bothered us, as we did everything on foot.  We're blessed to live in Spook Central, where we just walk out and do our trick-or-treating without having to go anywhere elaborate.

And the decorations on each house were so amazing this year.  Look at this one - this picture only captures part of the yard:

There were several large Halloween-themed inflatables on the other side of this yard.  And they were all over the neighborhood too, along with plenty of decorative orange lights.  The lights were a bit more tasteful, but there were plenty of houses that had makeshift cemeteries in their front yards, the kind with skeletons emerging from the ground, reaching for those trick-or-treaters that are lagging behind.

Here's that Minion pumpkin we made, the one waiting for us when we arrived home.  Mommy was there, along with Nana, who returned a bit earlier.  Both were seated on the porch, serving up sweets to trick-or-treaters along the way.  Not as many come down our stretch of road, but there were still quite a few.  Most of the parents in this neighborhood were outside with bonfires and music playing, seated in lawn chairs waiting for costumed kids to come by.  Madison was in her element!

It was a great night, of course.  And again, it didn't rain, despite the threat of it doing so time and again. All week long for our various events, there was the dire forecast.  And in each case, the clouds refused to release any precipitation until the festivities were over with.  It was just plain awesome.

Earlier today, after Daddy got home from work, there was a bit of celebrating to do.  After all, today is is birthday.  The cousins, Aunt Shain, Nana and Ye-Ye all arrived with a birthday cake and some presents and cards - it was nice to see everyone drop by.  We talked for a while, ate cake and in the cousins' case, played zombie video games.  That's the sort of thing you do on Halloween.

It was a very nice day, all said and done.  And looking back on the last two weeks, we've certainly filled them with fun for the whole family.  It's been wonderful as always.  Today wrapped it all up, a great birthday to end a great month!