Happy Halloween!

For Halloween this year, Casey insisted early on that he wanted to be a witch. Marcie decided early on she wanted to be a banana. She saw a banana costume in an ad in the paper. But we couldn't find a banana costume in her size, so we picked out all the fixings for a butterfly instead. Then, the day before Halloween, I found the coveted banana costume and Casey's witch plans went right out the window. Even though Marcie had requested the banana costume, she graciously allowed her brother to sport the fruit instead. When we trick-or-treated through the neighborhood, Casey kept announcing, "I'm a banana." As if you couldn't tell.

Here a few photos of the kids celebrating Halloween:

Casey and his class's scarecrow.

Marcie trick-or-treating at her school party.

Our neighborhood has one, long, pretty flat street. And I think other people drop their children off here to trick-or-treat. We live at the very top of a giant hill, though. So we walk down the hill on one side of the street and up the hill on the other side. The kids get lots and lots of candy because, well, I think people feel like they've earned it trekking up and down the hill. Plus the easiest way to get rid of candy without eating it is to give it away. So Casey's 5 gallon bucket was more than half full when we got home.

We haven't completely figured out how we'll eliminate all the candy without the kids noticing. I wanted to have them each pick out a handful and leave the rest for the "Halloween Witch," who would come by and pick up the candy, leaving books behind in its place. Jason (and others) have told me this idea is dumb. And I'm not sure I could get the kids to trade candy for books-- though I personally would.

One bonus to trick-or-treating is that we get to see all the neat things people have done with their homes. Last year we saw a house where they'd removed all the internal walls in the main living area of our model. This year we saw our model with a second-floor addition and they invited us in to see how it was all arranged. We always get great ideas, and it's one of the only times of the year we get to meet and chat with the neighbors.