Halloween Take Four - the real deal

After a full month of celebrating the arrival of Autumn and Halloween fun, the actual big day finally arrived. We had been warned for weeks by our neighbors to stock-up and be-prepared and they certainly weren't kidding.  All told, we had over 700 trick-or-treaters in less than 2 hours!!!! (And - we made it all the way to 7:57 before running out of candy, even if that meant one pixie stick per kid.)  It was a blast! Luckily we had the help (and Halloween spirit) of my parents, a very eager three-year-old, fun costumes and a Schneider Family Night to Remember.

The Cat in the Hat with her Things 1 & 2! 

 Grandma & DD (Ming-Ming that is) to the rescue!

 A mouthful of candy

 Swinging in the dark (which was probably the highlight of her night, to be honest)

Since I rested most of the day on Sunday, I was able to justify being up for a trip half way down the street and back with Josie and some time in a chair to pass out candy. 

 Truth told, Josie was a little overwhelmed by the trick-or-treating process itself. About ten houses in, she looked at us and said "I should really get back home."  She was more excited to pass out the candy than to go get it for herself. And at the end of the night, we took what candy she did have and left it out for the Halloween Fairy. I told Josie we should hang it on the doorknob, but she insisted that we had to leave a trail of candy so the Fairy could smell it.  She worked pretty hard on laying this all out just right.

 And even drew a picture for the Halloween Fairy to take with her as well - which she taped to the front door earlier that day so the Fairy could see it while it was still light outside. The next morning she woke up to find a thank you present from the Halloween Fairy sitting on the front porch - a new book and a game! The Halloween Fairy was so excited that Josie donated her candy to Fairyland where all the fairies could turn the candy into pixie dust!

Oh & I should also mention that the peanut allergy thing wasn't as big as a concern as we feared - mostly because Josie really has gotten so good about it.  Sure Louie and I cringed every time we saw someone toss a Butterfinger, Reese Cup, or bag of peanut M&Ms into her bag - but Josie gladly asked us to pull out all the peanut stuff so she could choose from what was safe. And we just passed the peanutty-stuff back out to other kids (or gave it to DD).

It was a GREAT Halloween! 

Halloween Takes Two & Three

Way back at the beginning of the month, we started off the Halloween season with a trip to the zoo - where Josie wore her first of four Halloween costumes for 2010.  As you know, Josie had lots of interesting ideas for costumes (veggie burger, parking meter, microwave, salsa, mop, windmill, nectarine, doorknob) but she ended up settling for some more traditional ideas (thankfully). She had two more opportunities for dressing up at her two best friends' Halloween parties. She was a princess for the first and a fairy for the second. Here she is with several of her school friends at the two parties.  (All this & it wasn't even Trick or Treat yet!)

 Oh, I should probably mention (before you all think I'm nuts) that we didn't buy Josie four Halloween costumes.  With the exception of the actual trick or treat costume (that came from ebay), she already had the rest of these things in her dress-up stash.

And can I just say that we are beyond-thrilled to be a part of such a wonderful school family.  It's so incredible to think Josie will grow and learn alongside these same kids from now until she's 9! (Three cheers for montessori education!)