Happy Halloween!

I love fall.  LOVE IT.  This year, I missed a lot of its festiveness because I was exhausted and out of it.  But we did manage to catch it before it was too late.  Made it to the pumpkin patch.

He stuck his head in here without prompting

He decided he needed a seat and a snack

Pumpkin candles.  Pumpkin Oatmeal cookies.  Apple cider.  Micah and I have a yearly tradition of movie night outdoors.  We haven't done it this year, but maybe we'll still be able to squeeze it in before it gets too cold.  We haul out a very old tv and VCR (I told you it was old!) and eat Thai food and watch Serendipity next to a warm chimenea.  It's magical.  I love it.

And we did get to experience Halloween with two of the cutest little munchkins EVER.

Monkey

Pea in the Pod

We went up to Micah's office to show off costumes and did a little parade loop inside.  Then lunch at Chipotle because - well, because we dressed up like burritos for something like 4 years in a row in order to get free burritos on Halloween night, so over time it just began to feel like Halloween went hand-in-hand with Chipotle.

This was Douglas' first year trick-or-treating.  We practiced in the kitchen a couple hours before departure.  I sat on the floor and said, "ok, bring your bag over and pretend to ring the doorbell", and we went through the whole routine.  Who knows if he actually got what the heck I was talking about.  We went up and down our cul de sac with Cousins, so he got the hang of it quickly watching the older two.  It was the first year for all of them, though, so it was very, very fun and memorable.

Just before Trick-or-Treating.  Douglas' candy basket is his school lunch box because a half hour before leaving, I realized I had nothing for him to go trick-or-treating with

The first house

The trickiest part of trick-or-treating was keeping him from escaping into people's houses. Like, EVERY ONE. He just didn't understand why these lovely people were opening their door to us and NOT LETTING US IN! He kept trying to push gently and quickly past them to explore their house.

The whole gang.  My brother-in-law Brian's parents were part of the crew.  As you can see, they've got team spirit.

And just like that - it's over.  Our little monkey and his borrowed horse are headed home.

One of my favorite memories was when a neighbor brought over a bag of treats before we left the house, just for fun.  Douglas yelled "treats!" when they left and was so excited he could hardly stand it.  We love us some treats 'round here.  He pulled out a box of candy that was something like Candy Sticks or something - anyway, he shook it and yelled, with glee, "Vitamins? Vitamins?".  He loves his chewable multi-vitamin.  Bless his little heart.  We took out the sugar sticks and put in some Apple Chips, and he was thrilled.

I love our little family of four.