HALLOWEEN

This little baby went trick-or-treating with friends tonight and brought home a huge pillowcase of loot. Richard will be imposing the "Daddy Tax" on the candy tomorrow when he sees it all. He already taxed the little ones as we were collecting the goodies.

The Pirate Maiden. Tessa borrowed two costumes from a friend and had such a hard time deciding which one to wear! This won out and she certainly looked cute!

The Snow Princess. I had grand plans of making her a snowflake crown, but couldn't find snowflakes in the stores yet. (Plenty of Christmas lights and such, but nothing frosty.) Maia held out pretty well tonight, but she has the flu and so gave up before the rest of the kids. She really wants to go to school tomorrow for the program, but we'll have to see. -- She's still as sweet as can be. While the rest of the kids were counting and sorting and labeling their candy, she was filling plastic bags with her candy and marking them for "mom," "dad," and "Austin." I keep telling Richard that I don't know what I'll do if she catches the usual teenager disease.

"Fweepin' Booty"! Ivy got lots of "oooh, look how cute" comments. I put makeup on her and did her hair pretty for the the Primary Halloween Party -- but she would have NONE of that tonight! Just the dress (with warm pj's underneath) - even the crown was stuffed in the candy bag after a few houses. -- Her trademark at each house was to take FOREVER choosing which candy to take. She'd pick one kind up and consider it, then place it back and pick up another. Everyone thought she was so cute that they didn't mind. She said "trick-or-treat" the loudest and remembered to say "thank you" just as loud! When I told her she was "so good at saying thank you" she said, "yes, I am!" She definitely got the hang of Halloween this year. As we left each of the first dozen or so houses, she would ask "are we going to go to another house to get candy?" I would tell her yes, if she wanted. She always said, "Yes, yots more houses." And each time she walked away she'd say, "Isn't this fun? I yike trick-or-treating!" So cute! She didn't understand why some people didn't (wouldn't?) open their doors, or why the one lady came out and said she didn't have candy - but she enjoyed the night anyway. And, she's a very good candy sharer with her mom and dad!

The gang. We spent a couple hours out - and it was a beautiful night. A little bit chilly, but they all had warm clothes under the costumes. Not one complained of being cold. It wasn't a bit uncomfortable - which is such a great change from the usual Utah trick-or-treating weather.

The REAL Spider Man! This bannister is the original - 120+ years old. Since the day we moved in, he has leaped, slid, swung, climbed, and hurdled it. Doesn't matter how many times we say "don't," Cooper simply can't WALK down the stairs. So tonight I had him "perform" his usual Spider tricks on it for the camera.

This is shot while he's sliding down at full speed. He usually drops from the bannister above at the landing, onto this one and slides down to the bottom with no hands. I'm used to it, but my visiting teacher who was over a few days ago just about went into cardiac arrest. I honestly don't know what to do. It is so in his blood!

Maybe we could interest Hollywood in a "Young Spider Man" movie. No acting classes required.

p.s. Cooper had fun showing off his spider head today at school and while trick-or-treating (his mask got hot so he took it off quite often). Every one just loved it. Our crossing guard went on and on about it, the principal said it was a hit, a dad at school couldn't stop talking about it. Everywhere we went people oohed and ahhed. -- I'm only a little bit worried about the shave fest coming up because, although BEFORE the spider, I explained how we'd have to shave all his hair after, he seemed confused (AFTER the spider) about the fact that he wouldn't have any hair for a while. He keeps saying, "but I'll have short hair, right?" -- One guy who gave him candy teased and said, "You know that will stay forever, right?" Cooper questioned me about that as we left the house. Stay tuned for pictures of the shave. Hopefully I'll get to it tomorrow after school. (at least before church on Sunday!)