Halloween

Whew!  What a whirlwind week. 
And finally, it is the actual day, it is finally HALLOWEEN. 

The kids got dressed and played outside before dinner.  I bribed them into getting a few group pictures.  Unfortunately, everyone was beginning to agree (pre-bribery!) but then N walked eye-first into a stick that Z was playing with and had left on the porch.  That is the explanation to his puffy right eye and why he is crabby.  The first few pictures were taken as I was waving the Oreo bag at them, the next ones once they actually had the Oreos. 

We took a dinner break and headed out. We all went to a few houses. Our street has a block party on Halloween, so we headed down there for a bit and gathered candy from everyone's bowls (seriously, 8 bowls full of candy just sitting there!). Z and Nate kept going down another street...his first year to go beyond our street and the few other neighbors we are close with who don't live on our street. He tired out after one extra street, and they got home just a few minutes after we got back from the block party (we left when N dumped an entire bag of oyster crackers on the driveway).  Nate said that he told his joke, then they worked on saying Thank You while actually looking people in the eye (apparently this is a hard skill to learn). 

We got all the little boys in bed, then I forced Z into my favorite OCD thing....sorting piles of candy. Oh, the joy of it!!! I remember Jenny and I doing it as kids, and it just makes me happy to see him do it. :)  And really, it's sorting...a good pre-school activity, right?

And that, folks, is it.  Halloween is OVER.  And this mama couldn't be happier.  So until next year...we're DONE!