Happy Halloween!

With Halloween falling the Monday after Tate's birthday, things have been a bit on the crazy side this year. Last year, when I was home full time on maternity leave, I was able to get the kids all costumed up for their school's "Boogie Bash," get plenty of photos and head off for a fun time. Then, on the day Halloween came, we gathered at a neighbors for pizza before trick-or-treating. Again, plenty of time to get ready.

But things have been a bit more hectic this year.

First, on the afternoon of Boogie Bash, a small client emergency arose at work, which necessitated me working late into the day. Late enough that the family had just planned to go to Boogie Bash without me. Luckily, I was able to make it. But Marcie did not want to wear her pea-hen feathers (smartly), and Casey was worried his tail and feet would get ruined. So we sort of half-way dressed for Boogie Bash. Except Tate-- he was all in as Elmo.

Then, Saturday afternoon, we headed off to another costume party. Again, the kids were meh about the costumes. And we accidentally left Marcie's feathers at home. But Jason and I went all out. We each had two costumes-- our real costumes, and then we also dressed up like one of the couples at the party (Tate joined in the fun, too!).

I had planned to leave work early for Halloween, but again, it just was not going to happen. I hate feeling rushed at work when I have something else at home- so I figured I would just catch up with the family trick or treating. But then I got locked out of the house. And I did catch up. Just in my not-as-comfortable work clothes and shoes. And the kids were wildly uncooperative with photos. So, this was the best I could get:



Agent P (Perry the Platypus) from Phineas and Ferb.
A peahen is a female peacock (we learned that at the zoo in October). Marcie refused to wear her beautiful mask, which had more feathers to compliment the outfit. But that's okay. It was a homemade original, and she thought of it and put it together (except for the feathers, which Jason did) all herself.

Tate was super pleased to be dressed as Elmo. He insisted we keep the head up the whole time. he loved Halloween-- he wanted to stop and touch all the "scary" decorations and everything. A total trooper.

On the way down the street. Tate refused to stand still for any photos with a flash-- the light made him go wiggly. I think this is par for the course with three kids. . .

By the way, we let each child pick a piece of candy to eat on Halloween night, then 5 pieces of candy, one for each of the next five days. The rest gets donated to my office. Some people think we're mean. But how much candy does a kid need? When they were younger, I offered to trade books for candy-- to no avail. Then one year, I offered to buy the candy off of them. No dice. Finally, when I just said they could only keep five pieces, no one gave me a hard time-- so that's been our tradition ever since. They can pick any five pieces they want (except for Casey, for whom we recently cut out certain color dyes and so he was a little more limited). And they love the choosing. Plus putting out tons of leftover candy at work has been a good way to introduce myself to people at the new job. It's really a win-win.

What do you do for Halloween candy?