Halloween 2005

Well, last night I had typed the whole story of our Halloween adventure, and then tried to publish it -- only to find out our internet went down. So that version of the story is lost. Here is the morning after I-really-need-caffeine version:

The kids were jazzed up about the whole idea of Halloween; this is our first fall holiday where they seem to "get it". So they eagerly and without a whine went down for their nap, knowing that when they woke up, it would be time for the party in the park. As they were sleeping, I was getting very excited to see them in action. They had practiced and practiced, "Happy Halloween, trick or treat!" AND they were as excited that Daddy was coming home early from work to join us for the party.

They woke up, groggy and grumpy, and we slowly made our way outside. The party was in full swing -- a bounce, a rock climbing wall, dj, hotdogs, balloons. None of my friends recognized me because I was a secret agent. I had short black hair, a black trench coat and black pants. I was trying to make my way around to see all our friends and their kids, but we were only there 15 minutes when the wind picked up, the sky turned black, leaves were blowing horizontally, and BOOM! the rain came pouring down. Al and I swept up the kids and took them inside. I ran back out to help the dj load some seriously heavy equipment into her van. I ran over to the rock wall folks and made sure they could haul their stuff away without issues. At this point I really did look so sexy, picture it: dripping black wig, running black eyeliner! Then I saw the hotdog guy and thought, "Hey we paid for those and they are going to sit out in the rain" so he and I shuttled his whole set up to our house.

We had something like 300 hotdogs and only about 10 people in our house at that point. So everyone towelled off, we got the ipod cranked up, the kids got into the candy and hotdogs, some neighbors came by and took away wads of hotdogs...friends trickled in and a few brave trick or treaters were greeted by exhuberant Steph, Paige and Graham, as well as newbians Katie and Nick (our British ex pat friends). Adrienne came by with Winnie and we got this great picture of her as Belle. Paige and Graham got to stay up extra late and were a delight the entire evening. They went to sleep in no time flat.

It was a shame we didn't get to go trick or treating, but it was a very fun evening anyway. Too bad William V. wasn't able to enter a costume contest; I'm sure he and Sarah Catherine would have won as King Tritan and Ariel.