Trick-or-Treating 2008

After leaving the school, we headed to Marna's house. When we arrived we started getting out of the car when Marna pulled up and we all headed inside. Lilly and Sophia were upstairs getting on their costumes and came down to greet us very soon. Before long, everyone started to filter in so we all headed outside to play. In Marna's front yard, they had hung a rope swing and the twins were anxious to get on. Since it was wobbly, I got on first, trying my best to keep my balance and hanging on for dear life, and then John handed me the twins one by one. Emily didn't want to miss out, so John plopped her up their also. I felt very unsteady and like my fingers were going to fall off from gripping so hard, but it was a ton of fun!!

After swinging, we played in the front for a while longer with all the kids. Since it turned out, Emily was still having issues from where she ripped her costume earlier at recess, she took it off while she played, and Katrina worked quickly to stitch it up or the evening. After a while, it was time for dinner, so we headed in, fixed plates, and then headed to the back with the kids to eat. Luckily all the kids had good appetites despite all the junk they had eaten at their parties, so we were able to get a good dinner in them before trick-or-treating madness started.

Once the kids were done eating, I started changing diapers, making a potty run for Emily, and getting all of them in to their costumes. Once all the kids were dressed, I also put back on my Dorothy ruby red slippers to make my costume complete and we headed out the front to take a few group pictures.

Once we had gotten in a few pictures, we all headed down Marna's street to the first house. Ansley and Bailey both wanted to walk and were so cute prancing along in their costumes. Although we drug behind the group since the older kids were much faster, Ansley and Bailey finally made it up to the first house with their buckets. Although Emily had already been to that house, she went up to the door again to make sure they were taken care of. The next house we went to had a dog that was dressed up as a pirate and Bailey though that was the best thing she had ever seen!! She was also encouraged by how much the lady made a fuss over how cute she was and how cute she thought the Wizard of Oz theme was, that when the dog went back inside the Lady's house, Bailey was ready to follow it inside. It was hard to get her to understand she was not staying with the dog, but after showing her candy, she was quick to follow me to the next house.

We made our way around the bottom of their street and headed back up. At one house not far past Marna's, Ansley decided she was ready to inspect her goodies. In her normal independent fashion, she plopped herself right down on the drive way and started pulling stuff out to take a look. Daddy sat with her and helped her look, before we all headed to the next house. Before long, it was getting colder and later so John took the little ones home and Emily and I pressed on with the group.

We made it about 3/4 of the way up Marna's street when Katrina offered to let me use her tennis shoes since she had on several pairs of sock and I was killing my feet in the heels. Since mine were gone (they were in the stroller that John had taken when he left) and I was pretty desperate, we made the switch. It was quite the relief to get those off =)

When we made it to the house at the top of the street, the lady oohed and aahed over Emily and Sophia's costumes as they came up to the door. However being the drama queen that Emily is, once Sophia had moved on to the next house and Daddy and I were still there with just her, she asked the lady if her costume was beautiful because she needed to know that just her costume was beautiful. It was so funny and the lady was tickled. Just for Emily, the lady went on and on about how beautiful she was.

After that, we made our way back down the street and gave the kids the option of going down the side street or going back to the house. Surprisingly unlike the past year, they were ready to head back. For that part of the trip, Emily stretched out in the waggon.

When we got back to Marna's, the kids looked over their candy, ate a little, and then got ready to go. Emily, Sophia, Lilly, and Christian headed with Daddy and Katrina for a spin the night party and I headed home to crash.