Halloween!

October 2009. I love Halloween! I always have, since I was a kid. Those of you who know me can't imagine it, but I was extremely shy, and dressing up for Halloween was a way to come out of my shell a little bit. I could be someone, or something, other than myself and I could blame any out-of-the-ordinary behavior on the character I was dressed as. Now I get to do costumes for a bunch of people every year! Fortunately for me, my kids are good sports and they let me dress them up. These are from the ward Halloween party at the church. Four of them were costumes that I already had (50's sock-hopper, cowboy/sherriff/bandit, witch, and angel). D's was a pre-made pirate costume that I bought, and Ni's fortune teller outfit was a result of thrift shop finds. I had a lot of fun putting them together.

I got double use out of the pirate costume. S and I got to dress up for a party at a friend's house. It was quite an accomplishment to get S to dress up as anything other than himself. In all the years that we've been married, when asked what he will be for Halloween he says, "I'm going as myself." So I made sure to get a picture of him as proof that it can be done. The question is, will he ever do it again? Hmmmm...

Here's our 2009 trick-or-treating group - all of my kids, with a few extras. We used to leave our house and go to other neighborhoods for trick-or-treating because the houses around here are pretty far apart. We thought that a "regular" neighborhood would be easier and they would get to go to a lot more houses. As it turns out, we tried our area a few years ago and loved it. It seems like more of an adventure to walk up and down long driveways, sometimes with very little light, and a lot of trees. We only have to go around our block, which is about a mile, and their buckets are full, and the kids are tired. It's perfect. The people around here give lots of candy because there aren't many kids out. The other bonus is that the group is never very far from home. We've created a new tradition.