Gone With Halloween

Lauren's absolutely favorite holiday, hands-down, has come and gone.  As in gone with the wind.

But as sad as she is to be done with it for another year, we sure as heck did enjoy the days leading up to it and the actual event itself.

Beginning with pumpkin decorating.








[The pumpkins on the table were carved for Lauren and Gigi into kitty o'lanterns.  Unfortunately, after only 2 days of residing indoors, Lauren's was overcome by creepy, ghoulish mold, so promptly decorated our garbage can]

We certainly were the first house in the neighborhood to put our decorations out.  As soon as October 1st hit, Lauren started her daily plea to get 'em out!  I think I was able to postpone it until the 6th, and then succumbed.  The plastic storage tubs came down from the garage, old, spooky friends emerged (some were admittedly worse for wear, thereby prompting a few new purchases), and everything was lovingly placed in their proper locations.


















[This guy was a little worse for wear after 5+ years.  His placement here was Joe's solution - couldn't quite make it to the water so expired trying.  It was a big hit.]

Halloween eve, I picked both Lauren and Cadence up from school and brought them home for hair, makeup and costumes.  The Black Swan and Scarlett O'Hara were both pretty pleased with the results.





A bowl full of Costco's biggest bag of candy was ready and waiting for Joe to hand out.



Of course we couldn't head out without first having a little fun with the grownups.





I then took the girls on a 10-minute walk to an adjacent community, where dozens of kids had gathered for food and frivolity.


[In case you were wondering, Lil Miss Scarlett remained in character pretty much the entire evening]











Part of the festivities included a costume contest.



Lauren definitely should have won (in more than just this mama's opinion), but life lessons were served up, as the winner was declared to be one of the superhero boys (who just so happened to have lots of friends who were there….)

Soon enough, Lauren and Cadence were ready to hit the sidewalk and begin hauling in some goodies.





Norm joined us for trick-or-treating, making one little girl quite ecstatic.



The last house on the stop?



The best one, of course.



Which is where neighbor Faith made an impromptu appearance.



Lauren and Cadence gleefully took over the candy-distributing responsibilities, acting out various death-defying scenarios each time they opened the door to appropriately surprised revelers (with a costume change for Lauren).

And the coup de grace?

Sorting and trading candy at the end of the night, of course.





So how do we measure the success of each Halloween?

By how hard she pouts and cries after it's all over.

And this year, it's safe to say that Halloween was a resounding success.