Happy Halloween

well, today began the weekend my kids have been looking forward to for a month. when else can you spend two days dressing up, playing make believe...and getting tons of candy? the last day of october (all hallows eve) and the first day of november (all saints day), of course. so, we began our meager preparations on wednesday evening by carving our pumpkins. it had been so cold outside that there was frost inside of the pumpkins.
of course, it took some debating, but in the end we ended up with batman and princess dora...
and a sock monkey and a, um, er, window scene...i'm not even going to talk about that one. that's what our oldest calls "picking out something really easy so she can carve it herself and then expecting me to do it but getting mad that she can't do it because she didn't pick something simple like a face which i asked her to." but i digress.
then, last night we put the finishing touches on costumes like making a sheath for a sword and a whip out of a toilet paper tube, yarn and electric tape. i was rather proud of the whip. i felt like macgyver. and tonight, we put a grand spread of candy out on our porch and our little monkey, indiana jones and not so little ninja headed out to get some candy of their own.and did they ever get the candy.in fact, they brought home enough candy to build a "fort."we all had a wonderful night. i found myself enjoying it as much as the kids. this is something that we have dreamed of for our kids for years now. you see, while we lived in the city there was nowhere to trick or treat around our house that was safe. so, we would always load the kids up in the car and head off to somebody else's development. so this year it was such a blessing to be able to walk right out of our door and go. we saw that halloween in our development is such a family thing. the sidewalks and streets were teaming with costumed kids...with their brothers and sisters...and their parents. people were out in their driveways with their neighbors handing out candy and having a wonderful time. and the weather was beautiful too. tonight just added to the blessings we have received since moving here.
tomorrow night we will be having an all saints day party at our parish. so stay tuned for pictures of saint agnes, saint george and saint elizabeth/helen/gianna/blessed kateri/our lady of guadalupe...depending on the final decision our littlest little person.