Halloween

We were so happy that Papa Jeff and Grandma Bonnie could stay with us through Halloween! The kids had been looking forward to it for months. John had originally wanted to be Green Lantern, but we couldn't find a Green Lantern costume at Costco, so he picked Captain America instead. I had bought Lila her Sofia the First princess costume back in July, when Grandma Bonnie and I had been at the Disney store at Tysons' Corner.

The weather was really warm during the week of Halloween, so we were able to do a lot of outdoor activities. Papa and Grandma and I took the kids to the Burke Nursery pumpkin patch a few days before Halloween. John looks really tired in all these photos since we went there right after school ended, but he was SO excited to be there. Of course Lila was excited too. The "magic carpet ride" was a huge hit with her - she went on it probably 10 times or more. (Thank you to Papa for helping her sit on the correct side of the carpet each time.)

The kids and I had bought our pumpkins from Burke Nursery at the tail end of September, but we waited to carve them until the afternoon before Halloween to make sure they didn't rot (since it had been so warm outside). Papa helped John cut open and clean out the insides of his pumpkin. Yuck! Then I helped John pick out a stencil (Wolverine) and carve it. We asked Lila when she got up from her nap if she wanted to clean out the insides of her pumpkin, but she had no interest whatsoever. She isn't a big fan of getting messy, so I wasn't too surprised. She did pick out a stencil for it, though (one of the characters from the X-Men….maybe Marvel Girl? It was from John's book of stencils). So Mommy cleaned it the pumpkin, and Daddy carved it for her.

On the afternoon of Halloween, it was really hard to keep the kids occupied until it was time for trick-or-treating. They couldn't wait to put their costumes on and go outside! We were ready to go at about 4:15, but we had to wait until 6 to start, haha. Here are the two cuties in their get-ups.

It was a perfect night for trick-or-treating….totally warm enough to go without coats (although it did start drizzling around 7 p.m.). Look at those great photos of Papa and Grandma with their superhero and princess!! We ate pizza for dinner and then went door-to-door in our immediate neighborhood with one of the boys who lives across the street from us, Chris (he's the one holding the orange sign in the last photo). Later, we drove to Fort Belvoir to go trick-or-treating on post with our Army friends who live there.

 

When we got home from Fort Belvoir, the kids wanted to dump out their candy bags to see what they got. They each got a Ziploc bag to put their candy in - they were SO proud of them!

Lila ended up giving most of her candy to John because it wasn't the "right" color (i.e. not purple or green). Then Mommy and Daddy had to get rid of a bunch of candy because it wasn't appropriate for them (i.e. Big League chewing gum, Warheads…remember those?!). The kids still had a lot left, though, mostly chocolate. Every day for the next 10 days, John poured his candy onto the floor and sorted it by color and/or type. (We couldn't believe how much fun he had doing this. He definitely has a future in the professional organization business.) We let him pick out one little piece of candy to have each day for 10 days or so. He was pleased as punch! Lila, on the other hand, forgot about her candy after the first day, haha.