Halloween and the Trick or Treaters

We have had a rough couple of weeks. Shane's family has experienced some serious health problems. His dad had a heart attack and a double bypass surgery and his grandfather had been in hospice and passed away this last week. In the middle of all that, Shane also had his NRPA conference in Atlanta. It has been a chaotic time for everyone and has felt very disjointed. Despite all of that, we were able to squeeze in some family time for Halloween. Shane's staff ran a Boo festival and we took the kids to experience the fun.
As usual, since it was one of Shane's events, he was busy getting everything ready there while I got the kids ready at the house. Enthusiasm and excitement have been running high for our costumes this year. This year, like every year, the kids have changed their minds one hundred times about what they are going to be. We finally settled on a bandito, a ladybug and a pirate. Landry was supposed to be a "bluttlerbly" or a butterfly, but decided that it wasn't time to wear costumes yet and did this instead...
We ended up taking off her costume and she was the only kid not wearing something.

The festival had bounce houses and candy and the kids had fun going to each booth, but this was the best part: Santa!
He brought a huge petting zoo and the kids loved getting the chance to talk to him. He will also be at Snow Fest in December and is bringing his reindeer. Hugs all around. That was pretty cool!
After we talked to Santa, we took off to enjoy other parts of the park. This particular park has beautiful trails that go through lots of woods. Gibson loves going out there and wandering through even smaller trails and down next to the water.
We had a great time playing at the park, hiking, picking flowers and enjoying a great night.

For Halloween, Shane was gone, but we lived it up anyway.
We got our candy stash ready, carved our jack-o-lanterns, (Landry decided that it was time for her to wear her costume), and got ready for our night in the neighborhood.
I have some professional trick-or-treaters, but we went back over the rules anyway...
1) Take turns ringing the doorbell.
2) Everyone says "trick or treat."
3) Everyone says "thank you."
4) We only ring the doorbell ONCE.

They were experts and navigated the neighborhood beautifully.
Gibson declared it his favorite holiday of the whole year! (He really does love to dress up and beg for candy:)
After all of our fun, we came home and went through our stash. I had some happy campers!
The two older kids took chairs and candy to the front porch to greet other trick-or-treaters. Every time someone would come up to the house, Landry would run out and give them double fisted handfuls of candy on top of what the older two had already given them. We got rid of a lot of candy that way! :)