Halloween

Despite leaving work 5 hours early today, it was still a rush getting it together for trick-or-treating. C decided to be a ninja on Tuesday, because his Auntie just HAD to buy him a costume. I was going to make him pick one of the existing costumes in the dress-up box that had not yet gone trick-or-treating. But alas, we have a very tough looking ninja (with a roman sword) instead.
Mom came up to hang out with us for the afternoon, and unfortunately was stuck on a stool in my kitchen the entire time, watching me cook. Luckily she was able to help get C suited up for the night before we headed off to pick up our buddy Jack -whose little pro was sick and couldn't join the fun :(

Grandma brought some fun goodies and left before the sugar could set in.

We all congregated at Miss E's house to have some dinner and birthday cupcakes (Miss E is a Halloween baby) before taking the crew of 7 out for their goodies.

From L to R, G was all done wearing his costume, C the ninja, Jack the pirate, E the princess, N the "boy in an astronaut costume", M is Dorothy, and C a Power Puff Girl (I had to take her word for it, I thought she was a pink bumblebee because I don't know much about these things)

We were a woefully unprepared bunch, 7 children plus another in a backpack, with three moms when we set out. We drug Rebecca out of the nice warm house after a few minutes, but we still didn't manage to have a single child wearing reflectors or glow sticks. (Bad mommies) Theresa was the best one out there, she had a penlight! Luckily we were in a great neightborhood with lots of lights and lots of families. There was the odd man on the street that had one mystery item (hopefully candy) that he wanted the kids would split between them all. It landed in E's bucket, so we made a note to check that one extra closely before they all dug in.

The kids did a couple of blocks and we headed home a little after 7pm. Well actually, we headed to Jack's home, where the kids delighted us for 2 hours with "light stick dances". We just sat in the dark while they went hog wild in the living room with 30 glow-in-the-dark bracelets. Thanks Eliz for letting us hang, that was my favorite part of the week!

C took his bracelets to bed with him and was very happy that they were still glowing when he got up in the morning (ah hem, at 6am).