Halloween...What a day!

It took a couple of days. We've now recovered from 14 straight hours of Halloween fun. It started out with a parade and potluck party at Matthew's school. All of the kids were SO cute in their costumes. Aside from a few varieties of princess, everyone had something different. Pixar had a big contingent with Buz Lightyear and Lightning McQueen. We also had the standards...fire fighter, cowboy, and a witch. There were throw backs too....Darth Vader and Spiderman. Madeleine was a giraffe and Matthew was her Veterinarian. It was a good showing.

The Veterinarian choice was interesting. He picked it on his own without even knowing the historical roots of that choice. When I was in college, I worked for a Veterinarian. While there, I became friends with a girl named Nicole. After a couple of years of working with her, I went to her brother's New Year's Eve party. Her brother being Marc...aka Matthew's Dad. Funny stuff.

After the parade there was a lot of good food to enjoy and a pinata. Madeleine turned down the offer to smack the paper pumpkin several times. At the end, just before the thing broke open, she accepted the invitation. She must have taken some pointers from the big kids. She got up there with perfect form and a nice slice off the bat.

In the afternoon, Matthew and I carved a pumpkin and baked the seeds. He chose the shapes and I performed surgery on the gourd...rectangle please mom, now a triangle. The pumpkin and the seeds came out great. We took a couple of raw seeds and planted them in the garden. We're hoping for another cute little pumpkin like the one that recently came off the vine from last years planting.

After Madeleine woke up, we headed down the street for the Annual Halloween Block Party. They had a great time in the jumpy/slide house, bobbing for apples, eating mummy dogs, and playing with the other kids.

We came home for a quick dinner and changed back into costumes. This time Matthew opted for his train engineer costume. It's hard for him to go a day without being and engineer. We handed out candy until Marc came home and then we headed out to the streets. Madeleine seemed to catch on quickly. She chimed in on "treat" and held out her bag. She felt so comfortable, that at the next house she walked right in, found the table with the bowl and started to help herself.

After we canvased our street we packed in the car and headed to a kids party at the church. Our friend Nikki heads it up and she does a bang up job. This year it was a circus theme and she was the ring leader. There was a show with acrobats, but we just missed it. Matthew and Madeleine put on their own show on the stage and enjoyed all of the other festivities of the night.

It was a full and fun day!