Happy Halloween

What a non-stop and crazy Halloween we had this year! The weather was rainy most of the day, but that didn't stop us too much. The kids wore their costumes to school and got to trick-or-treat in the classrooms. Tyler's class had a party...he was super excited for pizza!

The treat bucket Tyler made at school.

I picked them up early and we headed to FedEx to trick-or-treat. I was so thankful for this option this year because we weren't sure what the weather was going to do that night. We got there right as it started so there weren't as many kids there and it wasn't as overwhelming for Tyler. Everyone decorated their cubes again and it was a fun time. Most of my co-workers hadn't met Caroline yet and if they had it was when she was tiny! So she got lots of attention and it drained her, as she fell asleep halfway through. The kids costumes were complete hits, too.

Caroline with one of my best work friends, Miss Amy!

Tyler loved this spider candy bowl that danced and played music!

Halloween night was extra spooky and full of surprises! We were getting ready to head out to the Glass' house and we heard a loud boom and saw sparks in the backyard - our power went out!!! Then when we got loaded up in the strolled, the tires were flat! So, Russ had to dig around the shed in the dark for the compressor. Once we finally got on our way, we noticed that almost all the neighborhood had lost power, including the Glass'!! We made the most of our pre-trick-or-treating visiting by flashlight and candlelight.

Sweet baby Margo was just a few weeks old and slept the entire time!

C has an obsession with sticking her tongue out lately!

Some of the Daddys!

Bennett (who was not in costume yet), Preston (elephant) and Tyler sneaking treats.

Alex, Preston and Reed

Silly shot! LOVE this one!!

Tyler was scared of Reed the skeleton at first, but warmed up after a little bit.

There was a lot of chase playing, racing, "banana peels" (falling down on purpose)
 and giggles outside with these boys! 

Tyler and Preston are starting to become little buddies. Their conversations that night were hilarious!

I had been looking forward all day to the group picture that we always take of the kiddos before we head out. Well, it did not go so well and really seems to get harder every year. It was completely impossible to take pictures, because it was so dark you couldn't see what you were doing. And then Tyler was a complete mess and wanted NOTHING to do with picture taking. There were meltdowns...by Tyler and by Mommy, who was trying to force and bribe him into the picture. Sigh. Since not everyone made the picture, I think we had 12 kiddos this year.

This was probably this best one of those taken...too bad stubborn Tyler was not in the picture! Ha!

At that point, I was so frustrated that I was ready to go straight home and not trick-or-treat at all! But Russ was my voice of reason and said I may regret not letting Tyler go, so we ended up going to several houses on our walk home. It was extra spooky with no lights in the neighborhood and the weather was eery with lots of wind and clouds. We had great neighbors who also made the most of the power outage by waving flashlights from their porch and yelling "we have candy"!

Cami and Preston trick-or-treated with us for little bit.

Brian and Margo were in the car so they followed behind us so we'd have some light!

I wanted to take Caroline to the door for her first
trick-or-treating experience, but she passed out in the stroller!

We headed home and got the kids in bed with no baths. It was a late night, especially for Tyler...I bet he didn't fall asleep until 9 or 9:30p. We were grateful to get power back around 10:30p! It was a fun month, but I'm ready to retire costumes and look forward to Thanksgiving!

All of Tyler's loot from the day. He will be eating this for a long time!