Trick or Treat Time!

On Halloween day I got to keep this sweet girl home because my mother in law had jury duty for the day.  I was so excited to get to have Hadley home with me and spend some quality time with her.  I miss her!!  She is so sweet and happy that I was still able to jump on all my conference calls and keep up with work email all day.  Then we went to Chase's class party together and got ready to have a bunch of our neighbors over for our Trick or Treat Happy Hour!

 

Rolling from her back to her tummy

Hello Hadley Girl!  

I love this age :-)

After Chase's class party we ran home to get set up to have all of our neighbors over for a pre trick-or-treat happy hour.  We have done this for the last 3 years in a row and it is always such a fun time!  We have some of the best neighbors you could ask for and we have become such good friends with a bunch of them since we have moved in!  We had 8 families over and I think around 40 people...it was a madhouse, but a fun one!  It was so hectic I only snapped a few pictures...

Some of the goodies...

Lots of appetizers and plenty of adult beverages :)

 

A group shot of the kids as we were heading out!

In typical Brady fashion, he wouldn't get in the picture but you can see him off on the very left side of the picture, lol!

 

I can't believe it but I didn't take any pictures of the kids actually trick or treating...but here are a few things I want to remember about this year:

1) It was freezing and windy out so Hadley was snuggled in her carseat and stroller and we didn't take her out of it or she would have freaked out.  It would have been cute to get a picture of her "trick-or-treating" and we would have if she was our first kid but honestly we were both running up and down the streets keeping up with Chase and Brady that I didn't even get a picture of her in her costume!

2) Chase was running at LIGHTNING speed with our 11 and 8 year old boy neighbors sprinting from house to house.  Craig and I had to separate so that one could stay with Chase and the other could stay back with Brady.  

3)  Chase requested a pillowcase instead of his plastic pumpkin at the last second to go collect candy in because that is what the older boys had :)

4)  Brady was LOVING going up to houses and he was so into it this year.  He would run up and say "Trick or Treat" and then yell thank you and run to the next house.  He might be my favorite age this year for trick-or-treating!

5) The very first house Brady went to was our neighbor 2 houses down.  I heard a huge crash and I ran up the driveway to the front door to see what happened.  There he was standing next to a giant white glass elephant that had fallen over and broken.  They had one on each side of their front door.  Brady was crying and saying "I'm sorry Mama" over and over again - I felt so bad for him!  The couple was super sweet and said not to worry about it but I still feel bad and hope it wasn't expensive!  They are Indian and I am pretty sure the elephant holds a religious value...hopefully Brady didn't just get bad kharma for the next year -oops!!!

6)  People thought Brady was a girl....hmmmm...didn't see that coming but I kept hearing "she's so cute" all night - lol!  I guess the whiskers looked girly with his big blue eyes :)

7) Brady tired out after 2 streets and asked to go home.  Craig took him and Hads home and passed out candy the rest of the night.

8)  Chase kept going on mock speed for about another hour - we headed in about 7:45.  One of our friends brought a huge stereo out with us and he was pushing it in a stroller so we had music as we trick-or-treated, lol!  The boys were still running so fast but we finally told them they couldn't go in front of the music.  Worked like a charm!  They would do a few houses and then meet at the stroller and dance a little and then run off to a few more houses.  

9)  It seemed a lot more dead in our neighborhood this year than years past.  The past 3 Halloween's our streets have been packed and I feel like I am in a movie with how many people are out...this year it felt very sparse...I think it was too cold!  I think kids went a few houses and then went home.  There were a ton of houses lit up, decorated and handing out candy but not as many trick-or-treaters.  Chase didn't think it was cold at all - running at lightning speed will do that to you :)

Chase busy separating and sorting after he got back from trick-or-treating!

 

Our exhausted tiger!  

We tried to wash the whiskers off but it didn't work too well :)  It cracked me up how sweet and peaceful and silly he looked all at the same time.

Another successful Halloween in the books!

We were watching Grey's Anatomy last night and there was a line that said, "you only get 10 Halloween's with your kids before they want to go off with their friends."  I literally teared up hearing that and realizing we are halfway there with Chase!  Definitely makes me want to enjoy every single second of every holiday while they are my tiny toddlers!!!