Halloween Wrap-up

As a Wednesday, the day started with play group. I toasted my pumpkin seeds before we left, and we had a fun time playing at the playground and sharing seeds with all our friends. Jonathan decided I should be a damsel tied to the tracks (to go with his melodrama villain) and I finished pulling it together just in time to pick up Jonathan at school. We went to my oldest brother, Mike's, house for trick-or-treating. I hadn't realized half their ward would be there, but that was all for the better, because it was fun to get to know people and hang out while we watched the kids. Jonathan quoted Monty Python stuff with one of Michael's friends, and advised them to get candy while they can still get away with it. Elena and Joseph ran around and played with their cousins. I sat back and enjoyed all the fun.


When we went out Tick-or-Treating, Joseph knew immediately what we were doing and sprinted (as fast as his little legs would go) to each house, the tail of his Boots costume wagging behind him. He asked, "Pleeease!" for candy, then dropped it into his bucket, but then cried when we told him he couldn't keep asking for candy at the same house. So, I distracted him by getting him to run after Elena to the next house, where he saw the glimmer of new candy. Elena had no trouble going from one house to another, but suddenly turned shy when she encountered anyone with a candy bowl. The other groups of slightly older and more aggressive children we kept crossing paths with didn't help her case any, either. House after house we went, Joseph saying "oooh" to all the jack-o-lanterns and moaning ghosts, and Elena quietly saying her "Tick-or-Treat" from the back of the mob. After a street and a half, we started to slow down, and headed back to Mike's for snacks and the obligatory candy bag raid. Elena and Joseph both went in the moonbounce, set up in the back yard, but Joseph was tired enough by then that he didn't really like it. It was such a fun evening!

As for this weekend, Elena and are are invited to go on my mom's mother-daughter campout. Elena's really excited that she gets to go camping for my happy birthday, too.