October 31

Costumes are magical.  They transform you and take you somewhere else.  This past Halloween season we made every attempt to make the most of our costumes and do as many Halloween activities before Halloween so that there was less pressure on the big night itself. 

I'm here to report that plan was a total success. 

Our ward family dance - that's right, DJ and all, we've got one cool ward - was a hit, including the daddy daughter dance pictured below.

Or how about the Saturday that I loaded the kids in the car, costumes and all to go to the advertised trick-or-treating at our local grocery store only to find out the advertisement really meant the woman behind the deli counter would hand each of them a tootsie roll.  That was only after I asked her (the third person I asked) if there were any activities going on today for the kids.  We were quite the spectacle in the store.  Totally lame and false advertising if you ask me.  Kids were totally bummed so we drove over to McDonalds.  Right before I started unloading us all, costumes and all, I saw across the street at the strip mall, parents and kids pouring out of the doors wearing costumes. 

I put the car in reverse and to the strip mall we went, for a fabulous indoor Halloween festival...trick-or-treating, face painting, balloon animals, coloring contests and free food.  Totally made up for the grocery store debacle.

The day before Halloween the kids were able to wear their costumes to school and it was quite possibly the cutest thing ever to see them all interacting and talking about their costumes to each other.  It could have been the cutest thing, until I came to pick Madeleine up and was whisked into the classroom to help Madeleine who was in the middle of throwing up repeatedly.  Poor thing - and all she could think about was her costume and how she ruined it.

Washing machine magic strikes again and after a 3 hour nap, she was doing much better.

Then the actual day of Halloween we went to IHOP for free pumpkin face pancakes for the kids and Jamba Juice for free smoothies. By the time trick or treating rolled around I didn't really care if we went to 1 house or 100.  We happened to walk out of our house at the same time as our neighbors and joined forces for the evening which kept the whining and complaining of cold down to a minimum.  Friends are the best.

After a loop around the neighborhood we came home and that's when Madeleine found her calling in life.  She would wait by the door and when the doorbell rang, she would leap up with the big bowl in hand, open the door and say, "please just take one.  stay warm and have a safe night!" as though she was their grandma.  It was hilarious having her spout this off to even the high schoolers who came by. 

We're still sifting through candy, using it as bribes and bargaining tools and remembering our time as "a tough knight protecting a Costco princess and her Sophie giraffe that she likes to dribble spot on" - Madeleine's description of their trio costume.