Halloween, Fun but Missed Home Today!

Ok, so I miss being home around my sisters on days like this. I admit it. Growing up in a neighborhood where Halloween is a BIG deal and now living in the country is hard for me. I have so many fond memories of "trick or treat"ing in the old neighborhood and handing out candy when the ghouls and goblins knocked on the front door of our house; it being dark out and pumpkins lit all over with candles. I always looked forward to someday having kids all come to my house and handing out candy, but since living in the apartment in Birmingham when we first moved here 11 years ago, we haven't had trick or treaters (and one of those 2 years in the apartments Cory refused to let me hand out candy, "just turn off the lights, we don't need to have all those people seeing in our place." I love him but sometimes he can be a scrooge!) I know it's not the same for Cory, since he grew up in a similar setting as we live now. So, I guess we've got to make our own memories here.

I'm working on it. I've got friends that live in neighborhoods, and someday when the boys are older, we'll probably head over to one of their houses for a party and door to door fun. For now, since the boys are so young, we're just doing the dress up thing and participating in the school party. And we had a great day at it.

Jack was a trooper from the start, loudly proclaiming this morning, PARTY! (He has a GREAT memory, so watch what you say or promise when you see him!) He happily dressed up as a cowboy and Daddy taught him to take his hat off and say "Howdy Tex!" And Daddy also saved the day by finding a horse costume at Wal-mart last night on his way home from north Alabama. It was only a 3-6 mos size but scissors can do wonders and it worked perfectly. They were TOO CUTE!

In the afternoon I headed back to school for the afternoon party in Jack's room. He wore his hat and holster all day, which shocked me...I was certain the novelty would wear off just as the party would start. We got a few cute pics, as evidenced below. And most fun for me, was stopping at Publix for a few things on the way home and getting lots of smiles and "they are soooo cute!", "what clever costumes!" from strangers...I like showing them off occassionally after all!

So all in all, it was a great day. And Jack even got to top it off with his first sucker. Well, I say it was his first, the first I've ever given him and I generally feel that most of the time I'm the one giving him most of his "firsts"...interesting that when I did he loudly proclaimed "SUCKER!"....hmmm, how's that work?

All dressed up and ready to go!

Not so keen on getting our pic taken by Aunt Kay at school.

Short lived meltdown. Somebody wanted his snack...NOW!

(Jack, Ms. Amy, Sam, Ellis, Braedon, Madison, Ali, Erin, Ms. Missy)

How cute is this horsey?!