Here Comes Halloween

Phoebe wore her Halloween costume to school yesterday, including the broken face makeup. She was running late so I had to do this really fast. She was anxious that people would mock her for dressing up, but she got lots of positive comments from kids and teachers.

Even though we only had a handful of trick or treaters last year, Bryan wanted to be prepared in case we got more. And we did. He said about 30 kids came by. He set up our huge speaker that lights up and played Halloween music. He also hung lights on the trees and around the front door. We do have too much candy left over, but not as much as last year.

Peter met up with friends and I got zero pictures of him on Halloween. I told the other kids we would leave at 6 o'clock since that's the designated beginning to trick or treating hours for our town. Topher was the only kid ready on time, so he and I headed out and the other three caught up.

I took no pictures while we were actually trick or treating. I was more concerned about keeping track of everyone. We walked about two miles during our candy campaign. By the end of the night Topher was begging me to carry him, which I did for short distances. Phoebe's shoes had started to rub blisters on her heels. Luckily we're still roughly the same size, so I swapped my super comfy shoes for her slightly less comfy footwear. She was able to make it for the last thirty minutes and my feet held up okay.

Topher was adamant that the kids get to trick or treat at our own house at the end of the night. While they did that, Phoebe practiced being a creepy doll.

I didn't realize until I was looking at these pictures later that I caught myself in this picture.

Topher got lots of comments on his firefighter costume, many thanking him for his service. We learned that one of our neighbors is a retired fire chief. His wife opened the door, saw Topher, and said, "Firemen are my favorite!" Sophie also got lots of comments, especially on her pointy ears. It was a chilly night so she borrowed my cape to go over her elfin princess costume. It complimented it perfectly! Phoebe continued to nail her haunted doll look. And Cooper stuck with last year's mistborn costume. When people asked what he was dressed as he usually just said, "It's from a book."

The winner of the longest walk of the night goes to Peter. I dropped him off so he could meet up with friends about 2 miles from our house. He was the first to arrive since I needed to get back home to take the other kids out. I told him I would be trick or treating with the other kids and Bryan would be handing out candy, so if the friends didn't show he would have to walk home. It was still daylight at this point. The friends did gather and they went trick or treating for two hours. When that was done he discovered his phone was dead. Instead of asking to borrow a friend's phone so he could call us for a ride, he decided to walk home. Alone. In the dark. It had been so long since we'd heard from him that I went out driving through the neighborhoods I knew he'd been in with the group of friends. I called another friend that didn't go to see if she could track him down. Finally I got a call from Bryan saying that Peter had just gotten home. He had heard me say "walk home" without the other context. If I had driven a different way I probably would have found him. After that extra excitement, we were glad he was hone and safe.

I feel like Halloween has lasted a long time this year. It was fun, but I'm ready for Thanksgiving.