Halloween 2012

Halloween was a busy, busy day. It started with a speech evaluation for John, who is a great communicator, but reluctant talker. We went on a little "Mommy date" to talk to some nice folks at the county office. John got to point at pictures, tell about what he saw, and play with lots of really great cars. I'm happy to report that he passed all the 2 year old benchmarks and even in the last week and a half (since I made the appointment) has demonstrated a major explosion in his ability to use and interest in trying new words. After our fun little play date with the speech pathologist, John and I stopped by Mom's Apple Pie so he could pick out a cookie. Every Mommy date deserves a little treat.

Since school had been cancelled Mon/Tues, Emma's class party had been moved to Wednesday. I am one of the room moms for Emma's kindergarten class, so I packed up the craft and goodie bags that we had created for the event and headed over for a "Scarecrow Party." Sadly, I forgot to take pictures, but it was a very successful party. Mrs. Fay, Emma's teacher, is super-organized and has most of the party centers planned out ahead of time. 

After school, I had a full afternoon of violin teaching, but we broke off at 5:30 to devour some Domino's Pizza and get set up for trick or treating. Adam set up his table of tricks, complete with black light and strobe lighting, and had kids touch cold spaghetti (brains) and gaze at a cauldron full of eyeballs before getting their treat. 

Here are our trick or treaters: Spencer the black ninja, Emma the 50's girl, and John the firefighter. 

Trick or treating was a big hit with all three of the kids. John would approach each door and say "treat." He was pretty charming in his little fireman costume and got a lot of comments. I was glad Grandpa was along since John sometimes wanted "up" between houses, and I'm already carrying one little boy full time these days. Grandma helped Adam man the trick or treat station at our house. Here's John at our neighbor's house just after he picked up the latest addition to his collection of candy.

Grammy and Papa have no trick or treaters this year since Trina has turned 12 and was at a youth activity. So, they stopped by to see our cute little costumed kiddos. They caught us just as we stopped by our last house and then got to observe the candy sorting and trading part of the evening. It was a hugely successful haul for these kiddos. Good thing they are such good sports about the "Daddy Tax" and the "Mommy Tax." Every time we pull out their treats, they come running to pay up. Love these kiddos!