October 31, 2012-Halloween

All dressed up...

(click here for today's pictures)

• Graham climbed into our bed around 2 this morning and surprisingly everyone slept until about 7.  I guess he is the one that has been causing all of the morning ruckus.  And he might just be the first one to get their own bedroom-in the attic!
• We were moving pretty swiftly this morning-Robby headed to work and I had even had my shower by 7:45.  And by 8, all of the kids were in the school room working and having breakfast.  Alyssa Kate, Caroline and Baby Charlotte were coming over to play this morning so we hurried to finish our school work.  And it is truly nice to get everything finished by 10!  (We did skip science though!)
• When the Heltz' arrived, the kids all played upstairs mostly and we were all delighted when Nonna and Pops brought over Halloween cookies and the kids all took a break from playing so they could have a cookies.
• Then they all started playing hide and seek.  I wasn't paying any attention to this and was busy cleaning up a bit.  I opened the pantry and had my Halloween scare-Anderson was standing in the pantry hiding from the others-I let out quite a yelp when I saw him!
• More playing ensued and then we all had lunch and eventually, we kicked the kids outside to play some more.  Eventually, the Heltz' headed home and we all came in to start planning for tonight.  I laid out everyone's costumes and started loading up the bags and car.  Oh, I might have also had a brief nap after folding 16 loads of laundry (almost that many).
• Soon Robby called and we started moving and I needed that nap because dressing two ninjas, a ladybug, butterfly and an owl is a lot of hard work.  They were all so excited and pleased with their costumes.  I only had to buy the boys ninja costumes, the owl was borrowed, Reagan's ladybug was hers from 3 years ago and Campbell's butterfly was Reagan's two years ago.
• Our first stop was around 4:30 to meet Robby and trick or treat at Grannymom and Grandpa's house.    Robby brought supper so we ate there and then headed to see Lilly and Cash.  Next we loaded up again to go and trick or treat at Nonna and Pops' house.  And then to Beebee and Papaw's place to show off our costumes and pick up some more candy (just an aside about an assisted living place-at 6 everyone there is in bed!  We saw no one in the hallways!)
• Then we made our final stop at Hurricane Lake.  The kids were ready to stop the van at the very first house that we saw but we pressed on because our goal was the Browns.  We walked a few streets and saw quite a few friends from church.  And eventually started to see people with cotton candy and popcorn.  So that is direction that we headed!  At the Browns, the kids all devoured their cotton candy (devoured it!), had popcorn, grabbed some candy and a pencil and even had their pictures made in a few cut-outs.  As we walked off Graham said "that was like a festival!"
• We did have one incident while trick or treating.  At one house, Anderson walked up first and got his candy and a few kids later Graham walked up.  The man told him that they had to save the candy for other kids.  The man must have thought that Graham was Anderson.  Poor Grahammer was crying by the time he made it back to us.  Anderson offered to walk him back up there (Graham wasn't going back) but those sweet brothers-Anderson eventually gave him some of his candy and Graham calmed down.  I am sure the owner of that house would have been mortified to find out all of this.  From then on, the boys made sure that they went to the door at the exact same time.  Robby and I felt horrible about all of this and were concerned about poor G but by the time he got candy from the next house he was perfectly happy and had forgotten the whole thing. 
• After a few more houses and once we made it to the busy street, we started heading to the van.  Keaton was also getting a bit fussy-probably because she had dirtied her long sleeve shirt and been changed to a shirt sleeve, had taken off her shoes and then was pulling at her socks when I removed them as well-wonder if she could have been cold!  Oh, don't worry about her, we had her jacket-well, it wasn't on her but we did have it with us.  
• After a great day, who could not stop for shakes on the way home.  As soon as we made it home, we poured the kids some while they looked over their loot.  It was a really fun evening and we had 5 tired and full kids when we put them to bed!