Halloween Hangover (of the sober kind, of course!)

So on Halloween Eve, our church had a "Trunk-R-Treat" for the kiddos. As you can imagine the thought of getting tons of candy thrilled our kids. Brooke had the choice between being a puppy or a princess. She chose puppy. This seemed to work out well until we actually got to the church and saw a lot of other little girls dressed as princesses. Brooke spent the entire night pointing out all of the different princesses (which right now is her favorite thing in the world). Right on cue for a girl, I think she second-guessed her outfit and was sorry she didn't pick something different.....oh how it starts young....

Nate was our version of Family Fun's website creation of Alien Abduction (the pajama legs are stuffed and Nate's legs are in the black skirt). It got a great response. And as usual for him, he complained that "people were staring at him"

And Lo was our resident Fortune Teller complete with her own crystal ball (thanks to those cool clear balls with glitter floating in them!) She mostly read fortune's of "I foresee you will have 5 cavities after this weekend" or "I predict you will gain 10 pounds by eating candy." Totally appropriate for us all.

A good time was had by all.....I thought the puppy and Brooke kissing dad was cute! (and yes poor Brooke melted in her costume - it was 86 degrees here Saturday. Rodney even took the kids swimming! What's wrong with that picture?)

Fast forward to the next night and guess who did NOT want to be a puppy but a princess???

Like most kids they were dressed and ready to go before dark (no sassy comments on my exposure a.w. - it was a frenzy and as usual my settings were all off!)

We are so lucky that Papa John (Rodney's dad) loves to come and spend Halloween. It's a great tradition that the kids love. I think he loves it too....He has a bad knee, so the adults drove while the kids walked. (Nate ditched his elaborate costume for a simple version)

A huge thanks to all of our great neighbors for taking care of our little ones. Even the ones that were gone for the evening left bowls of candy and notes on the front porch. It was really sweet..... Nate LOVED the fact that a couple even gave full size candy bars!

Our tradition (like most) is to come home and dump out all of your spoils and see what you got.....I actually set the timer and gave a kids a few minutes to eat whatever they wanted (without choking themselves by speed eating of course). Then they got to fill a ziplock with their favorites which were put away to be rationed out over the next couple of weeks. Anything else goes into a big bowl, put away, and is usually thrown away a month or so after Halloween.

The only problem with dumping your candy everywhere, is grandpa and dad were filling their own zip locks too! Nate tried to protect his candy like a lineman protecting his quarterback....

Catch the action live......