Trick-Or-Treat!

Halloween was a much anticipated day around here! Daniel was super excited and absolutely LOVED his costume...he couldn't wait to go trick-or-treating, especially since Delilah's family was coming with us. He told everybody Delilah was coming with us- I think that alone made the day that much more exciting. It's always fun to trick-or-treat with friends!

Daddy took the day off, so all we had to do was keep busy and wait for trick-or-treating time! We went on a hike that morning with friends from nature class, Jen and Asher- more on our hike later. Then we came home for lunch, naps, a little playtime, and then it was trick-or-treating time! We had to wait for Patricia, Delilah, and Asher to come, but we were already starting to get trick-or-treaters at our house and the kids loved giving them candy. Daniel kept giving away handfuls, so we had to work with that a little bit and he eventually figured it out. Annabel was just as excited to give out candy, but she was a little slow in picking out two pieces, one for each hand, so that by the time she had her hands full and was ready to give them candy, Daniel had already given them their handfuls and they were off to the next house, leaving Annabel standing at the door wondering what to do with the candy she chose, poor thing. It was kind of funny, she's just so sweet and her brother is just a whirlwind sometimes; she can't keep up, though she desperately wants to!

Anyway, our friends finally arrived around 5:15 or so, and off we went with them. Daniel and Delilah held hands for a while, which was so sweet. They were quick to walk to each house, ring the door bell, get their candy, and then they were off to the next house. Daniel had a ball trick-or-treating, and only tired out right at the last house we went to- he sure had a lot of energy! Daniel's garbage man/truck costume (that's what he wanted to be from the very beginning, so we made it happen!) was easily the most creative and unique in the whole neighborhood (if I may be so bold as to say so, although we were told so, too!)- everybody loved his costume. Everybody kept saying he should have been in a contest. Many kudos and thanks to Ben for his creativity and engineering thoughtfulness in making the costume!!!! It really was such an awesome costume and it all came together so nicely. Daniel showed everybody all the details on his truck, too- the wheels, the garbage bags ("all tied up" as Daniel would say!) in the back, he'd turn around & show them, he was SO proud of his garbage truck costume. He LOVED it! That was so exciting and made Halloween even more fun! At one house, the lady said, wow what a great car, Daniel just looked at her all puzzled, so then she corrected herself, I mean what a great waste management truck- at which point Daniel finally exclaimed, "It's a garbage truck!" as if to say duh lady it's not a waste management truck whatever that is. Maybe you had to be there- but it was pretty funny. Daniel was so confused at first and then he was so happy to finally set that lady straight! Cracked me up!!

Annabel and Asher also held hands, with Annabel literally pulling Asher along because she was so excited; they walked as fast as their little legs would let them and they'd arrive at the door just as their siblings were about to leave, most of the time. Sometimes, the door had even already closed...but we rang it again for them if we needed to. Annabel was very curious about the candy that was going into her basket and she kept trying to peek and take the candy out, but she was also very eager to keep going. We went down our street, around the corner a bit, and then back on the other side, about an hour's worth of trick-or-treating. Annabel didn't get too scared by many of the decorations at the houses, but we were always right there with her. Asher freaked out at one house in particular, but Annabel didn't even seem to notice the scary stuff at that one. Annabel loved the huge inflated pumpkins outside one house- she kept pointing to it every chance she could and she'd smile really big. It was so cute to see how excited she got. The babies both tired out about 10 minutes before we headed home, which I thought wasn't too bad- they did really well! And the cold weather didn't affect anybody in the least...they were much too busy and too excited to notice!

The first thing Daniel did when we got home was line up all his candy and count it out. He was so excited to check out all that candy! He also wanted to eat it right away, of course, but he was actually really good and just chose the one he would eat after dinner. Trick-or-treaters were pretty steady all throughout dinner, which meant my kids were both leaping out of their seats and running to the door to pass out the candy. We had our Halloween tradition of sloppy joes and we also had baked beans (because neither of my kids will really eat sloppy joes even though we keep trying and we like to have something they will at least eat and beans they will both eat by the boatloads!)...I tell you this because now you will know what my kids looked like when they ran to the door...they'd have scared me away if I was a trick-or-treater! Messy hands, messy faces...though I tried to wipe Annabel, the messier bean eater, down a little before she ran to the door. And for Annabel, since she is such a messy bean eater, we usually take her shirt off, so in addition to the mess, she's naked on top, too. It was pretty funny to watch her go into a frenzy when the doorbell rang- bib torn off, hands and face hastily wiped down, running down the hall half naked, grabbing candy as fast as she could, and handing them out, only to run back into the kitchen, and eat more beans and repeat in 30 seconds. We had a great time! I was pleased the doorbell stopped ringing at 7:00- a decent hour which let us finally settle down for the night and have some quiet playtime, not to mention it was also good timing because we'd just finished our bag of candy (well, the candy we didn't want, we did have more but we saved the "good ones" for us!); we've had trick-or-treaters as late as 9:00 in the past (which is past our town's hours anyway!) and no, the porch light off never stopped them...so this time, it was nice to just have the time to ourselves as a family.

One other fun note from the whole Halloween experience for Annabel was that she LOVED all the costumes...she was just amazed and enthralled with the whole dress up thing, until we saw one really scary costume which sent her running into my arms! But other than that, she was so excited and loved watching all the kids. You could just see the amazement in her eyes, those blue blue eyes looking up at all the kids, checking out their costumes, smiles spreading across her face as she took it all in. It was really so sweet. I loved that she just took it all in- that she slowed down enough to notice. I don't remember noticing this interest with Daniel when he was her age or ever really- he's always been and still is much too busy and too excited to slow down and really notice the kids and their costumes. I thought it was interesting that I noticed this interest and studying expression in Annabel. It added to the excitement of the day even for me, just that little thing.

Daniel and Annabel had coordinating shirts- his had Mickey on it, hers had Minnie!

Daniel wanted to be silly for the picture...this is the best I got from him for a picture with his sister!

Annabel was more than happy to pose some more!

Nothing in there...yet...and to think that she really had no idea what we were going to do with that basket!

We learned a song in music class this week to the tune of one of our other songs for this session (Ram Sam Sam - although we do the actions a little differently than this video link), and it really caught Annabel's attention...she used the actions we did for the song as sign language all week long, which was pretty clever and so cute! So the song goes "a trick-or-treat, a trick-or-treat (clap knee once on "trick", hands together twice for "or-treat") ooleygooleygooleygoo (tickle tickle tickle), a trick-or-treat, some candy some candy (arms up in the air) ooleygooleygooleygoo, a trick-or-treat...and repeat, either faster or slower. You'd have to hear it and you'll get how catchy the tune and song are- (link shared above). Anyway, every time we'd say trick-or-treat, Annabel would start clapping, and then when she wanted candy or she heard the word candy, she'd put her arms up in the air, too- loved it! Ms. Kirsten would be proud!! So here she is clapping for trick-or-treat!!

Choosing candy for trick-or-treaters!

Passing out candy!

Ready to go trick-or-treating with our friends!! 

Group photo-op!

Annabel really couldn't be a cuter, happier flower, could she?! Gahh!!!1 I love her to pieces!

Off we go!

Daniel and Delilah holding hands!

Annabel pulls me along!

Annabel pulls Asher along, too...she was SO eager!

Annabel runs after Daniel and Delilah to catch up with them!

Onwards, Annabel says!

This picture is cool- thanks to the camera flash, you can see the reflectors on the back of Daniel's truck! Glad to have gotten this shot! You can also just make out the garbage bags on the back of Daniel's costume...that was my touch, the rest was all Ben!

Back at home, Daniel lined up all his candy and counted it out!

A few more trick-or-treaters before the night's end!

(and yes, we'd put Annabel's shirt back on her...she was done eating by the last trick-or-treater anyway!)

Hope you all had a safe and fun Halloween! My little treats sure loved every minute of their Halloween day!!! More on our busy Halloween week to come soon...we carved our pumpkin earlier in the week, we had costumes at music class, a costume parade at preschool, a Halloween morning hike, and of course candy to finally enjoy!!