Halloween 2008

We loved getting to spend Halloween in Kentucky!! I was so excited when I realized our visit was going to coincide with Halloween because I wanted to spend it at home so badly. I felt sorry for Brent who had to miss it, but I knew that we were really going to enjoy getting to visit the library and handing out treats in our old neighborhood. The day didn't disappoint and we just partied all day. Here's the story of our all day party...

We started our day at the library for the special Halloween story time. All the kids were dressed up and it was so fun to see them all. We have lots and lots of library friends and it was so fun to see them all and have a chance to catch up with them. Maura and Grammy were doing the finger plays together.

Our librarians are awesome and they dressed up and really got into the spirit of the day. They put on such a great program for the kids. Maura was so engrossed, especially when she realized that Miss Mary Lou, her favorite librarian, was there. The grand finale, the Tooty Tot song! We have such a great library. I think they do such a great job. I think it probably rivals a lot of larger towns for the quality of the programs and the size and inventiveness of the children's section.

All of the excitement of the library was just too much for Tristan. He took an incredibly comfortable nap on my shoulder! We're all ready to trick-or-treat at the library. Isn't Maura's excitement level just so evident? She looks like she's just overwhelmed by all the activity.

We had lots of fun running around and trick-or-treating. Tristan slept through the whole thing! Poor baby--he's had to learn to nap on the go because I have to do all my running in the morning and that's prime nap time for him. We corralled the three amigos for a photo. Maura is Little Miss Muffet, Liam is a doctor and Lily is a yard gnome. I can't tell you how many walks I've seen Lily and Dawn take when they've been carting around a yard gnome that Lily couldn't bear to leave behind.

We headed back to our "Kentucky house" for the day and Maura was so excited to be there and see her old room and the few toys I'd left behind. She ran around everywhere looking for all of her things. My sister has the house fixed up really nicely and we enjoyed our day at our "old" house. We scrounged up some lunch, and what better to eat on Halloween but a pumpkin shaped grilled cheese sandwich.

After lunch, the kids got to open their Halloween presents. Maura was excited!

Tristan was just excited about the bow. He pulled it off first thing! Maura "helped" Tristan open his present. It ought to be an interesting Christmas for her with both her own and Tristan's presents to open.

I left a toddler bed behind in Kentucky in anticipation of our trips home and I set it all up for Maura. She was SOOOOO excited about it and promised that she'd definitely nap in it. Well, she stayed in the bed very well, but she spent all her time jumping and flipping around in it. I had to go up in response to crying three different times when she'd hit her head or some other extremity. She managed to hit her eye/cheek on the guardrail and gave herself a pretty good mark. Here's the best picture of the injury.
We saw no reason to break tradition. Last year, she had a black eye on the other side after an unfortunate run in with a Wal-mart shopping cart. It's hard to see, but she's got steri strips on her right eye. It's a Halloween curse! Aunt Emily came over to help Maura decorate cookies. I was happy to delegate the decorating to them, leaving me free to ice them without having small fingers entering the icing bowls.

Of course Maura had to sample the offerings. Now introducing Black Beard Maura! Spitty cookies anyone?? Aunt Emily had some fun goofing off with her America's Most Spooky nephew.

We got the kids all dressed up for trick-or-treat even though they weren't going around the neighborhood. We opted to stay home and give out candy again this year because Maura had so much fun with it last year. This is as good as it gets, folks!! Little Miss Muffet and the spider that sat down beside her were looking their finest.

Maura was fascinated with the curds and whey I made for her. They did look like large marshmallows(they were just packing peanuts). Probably the cutest spider ever had fun with his pappap. He was almost too fat for his costume. I think if Halloween had been two weeks later, it wouldn't have fit!

My sweet Miss Muffet waiting on the trick-or-treaters. Sampling the curds and whey, mmmm.

We had a really nice Halloween evening and were able to enjoy sitting out on the porch to hand out our candy. Lily and Dawn were some of our first customers.

Dr. Liam stopped by too. He was really concentrating on that candy! Tristan is DONE with the whole Halloween thing. "Get this costume off Mom!!"

Maura still loved handing out candy, although she was very freaked out by the scary costumes. Whenever a particularly gory one would approach, she'd edge behind me and say, "Look at that silly costume, Mommy!" What a fun Halloween! We rounded out the evening with chili and all the sugar cookies we could eat. It was so much fun, but we did miss Brent. Hopefully by next Halloween we'll be back to normal--whatever that is!