Happy Halloween 2015

This year’s Halloween fell on a Saturday making the day a relaxed day. The girls picked their costumes weeks prior to Halloween. Actually, they have picked the next three years coordinating costumes, but we will see if they change their minds about those.

Our evening started at our closest grandparents’ house and then moved to the other grandparents’ neighborhood. There were plenty of houses close together to visit and LOTS of other kids moving around the neighborhood too. The girls enjoyed going up to the houses and finding all the other kids who had Star Wars costumes. They weren’t sure of what to make of Grandpa pretending to be asleep on the porch. He had a grumpy guy act for handing out candy.

Emily enjoyed reading several of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books and wanted to be Laura. She went barefooted for part of the trick-or-treating in honor of Laura’s general dislike of shoes. Maybe the blister she was forming on the back of her foot had something to do with it too.

Julia’s pick for costume was Princess Leia. We are a bit Star Wars crazy here at our house these days. This action Princess is a favorite. She was going to keep us safe for our evening adventure from all forces of the Empire. She charmed many people with her smile and braid buns.

Our Halloween this year was a cool Friday with an excellent chance of rain. Queen Elsa and Princess Anna from the land of Arendelle inspired our warm sweatshirt costumes. We trick-or-treated in our neighborhood and around to the Grandparents house before the rain started. On one side street the girls met up with some friends and they all trick-or-treated that street together. Grammy gave us a ride to the trunk-or-treat that was also in the neighborhood. After playing with more school friends and doing crafts we headed home for dinner and a special showing of Frozen.

The girls need some practice in assertiveness. Getting them to knock loud enough on the door and saying trick-or-treat seemed to be a struggle for them. They were much better with the thank you at the end.

The costume backs!

Trick-or-Treating with the much more outgoing neighborhood kids! At this point the fun of meeting up with friends, seeing Grandparents, and crafting with school friends is much more fun and important to the girls than how much candy they get. Hopefully it will stay that way!

We celebrated Halloween at Ms. Laurel and Mr. Shawn’s house. The girls had been asking to go out and see our friends and ride their horses, so we made sure we got an invitation. All of us seem to enjoy this yearly event. The girls didn’t have any fear of the horses this year. They rode without saddles and the only complaint I heard was that their rear-ends were a bit sore. Julia especially kept asking for another trip around the yard. The day was beautiful and dry. The evening cooled off a lot when the sun went down, but by then we were settled inside for food and pumpkin carving. No good photos of the pumpkins, but Laurel and Shawn did a great job carving the girls’ original designs. New this year was some additional friends added to the party. Another young family (if we still get to call ourselves a young family) joined in the fun. Their daughter was uncertain about the horse, but once she got started, she did not want to get off either. Our girls enjoyed having two more little people to hang out with.

Emily enjoying herself.

Our new Halloween party friends.

Riding around the yard.

The only thing Julia didn’t seem to enjoy about the evening was looking at the camera. Oh well. Another successful party. Thanks Laurel and Shawn.

Queen Elizabeth and Bessie the Cow wish you a happy Halloween. The girls seem to enjoy dressing up more than collecting candy. But they do like the candy and will eat as much (if not more) as they can get their hands on.

Bovine joy!

We enjoyed the face painting at the Trunk-n-Treat we visited.

A kiss from the Queen to finish out the day!

Happy Halloween from Izzy and Tink! It was a bit chilly and Tink was under the weather, but we made a go of the evening trick-or-treating. We visited our Grandparents and then a church trunk-or-treat at the end of the street. At the end of the evening we had lots of candy and had a fun time.

We joined Laurel and Shawn out at their farm for another Halloween party. We accept that they moved from our neighborhood, but only if they will continue to invite us out to celebrate Halloween each year. We have no complaints with our current neighbors, but we miss our former neighbors.

We were there early enough to get to take a ride around the yard with their horse, Letti, and pony, Chester. We like the fact that the horses keep their yard mowed for them. The girls did well with the horses. Emily was willing to try her hand at grooming, but not for long.

After the ride we carved pumpkins, had dinner, and ate lots of candy. We are looking forward to next year’s celebration.

Emily providing her grooming services.

Chester giving Emily a gentle ride.

Julia getting her ride from Chester. I love that Emily kept them company and held Laurel’s hand.

The girls with their pumpkins. They picked out a design and Laurel and Shawn each cut one out for them.