Happy Halloween

So Conner came home from school yesterday and tells us, "It's Halloween!" And we're like, "Uh, no, it's not." We totally blew him off.

Then John is outside and runs into our neighbor, who has had his entire lawn decorated as a cemetery for weeks now, complete with a boulder-sized inflatable spider and gargantuan skull.

He invited us to stop by later for their annual neighborhood gathering; they all hang out by the haunted garage and cook hotdogs over a fire. So John's like, "Isn't Halloween tomorrow?"

Color us ignorant, but we don't have to be hit over the head twice. We learned that in this area if Halloween falls on a Wednesday, Friday or Sunday, it's celebrated the day before. Wednesday because of church, Friday because of football games, and Sunday -- well, duh.

Even if John hadn't run into our neighbor we probably would have caught on pretty quickly when the trick-or-treaters started showing up by dinnertime. We struggled to get the little ones to eat a few bites of dinner before we gave up and got them into their own gear.

A couple of weeks ago I had asked Conner if he wanted to look for a costume and he professed zero interest. Of course, last night he declared he wanted to go trick-or-treating after all, which you absolutely do not do without a costume. That's the ultimate tacky. So Conner thought of going out in one of John's uniforms. And I'm like, uh, don't you think it's a little too cold to go swimming? Then I remembered that I had recently come across an old uniform of mine, which is only barely too big for my preteen son and quite a bit less inappropriate for him to wear as a costume. If it weren't for the tennis shoes, he might look a little too legit.

Sean-Peter got tired of taking pictures pretty quick. We assured him we would get going in just a minute.
Okay, all better. What a stinker.

We just went up and down part of our street, and it was more than enough.

Man, does this town get into Halloween. We did go by our neighbor's and enjoy their cookout and haunted garage. They seemed fascinated that this was the little ones first real Halloween experience, and the kids enjoyed the good luck of living next door to a couple that really go all out. Can't wait to see what they do for Christmas.