Trick-or-Treat!

Aside from Christmas, Halloween is my favorite holiday. Madeline loved wearing the cat costume that Ning sent. After digging through the attic, garage and closets, we never found Charlie's yet-to-be-unpacked Goldfish costume, so he ended up going as a linebacker in his football pajamas with black stripes on his cheeks (for his brief 15 minute appearance). Since he was asleep in his crib before the sun even set, we carried the baby monitor with us as we visited six houses on our cul-de-sac. Maple came too, humiliated and staggering along in her Elmo costume...again.

Madeline caught onto the concept of trick-or-treating pretty quickly. She tentatively knocked on our neighbors' doors, then promptly tried to enter each of their houses. I would whisper in her ear that it was time to say trick-or-treat. So she would quietly whisper it too, just as I had to her. Then, after a big smile and a barely audible thank you, she happily trotted off to another house, which she would try to enter. (She was successful twice, helping herself to the candy bowl in the entry way. Sadly, it was the same house both times.)

Rob and I tried to get into the spirit of things too. He wore his Napoleon Dynamite wig (leftover from the Halloween bashes we threw every year until we had kids). I put on my black wig, but took it off when I realized I looked like a freaky goth bumblebee. That said, when we were all four in costume and ready to join the forming street party outside our door, Madeline said, "Mommy, you look so stylish!" And if that isn't great, she told Rob he looked fabulous!