Trick-or-Treat!

Max and Molly had a great Halloween. We dressed Molly up as Little Miss Muffet and Max went as The Spider. As usual, I had an impossible time getting a picture of them together -- neither one of them wanted to stand still, ESPECIALLY if they were actually next to each other. Add that to the constant tearing off of hats and hoods and proclamations of, "All done!" (Molly says it now too), and you end up with a challenging photography session. I love this picture, because they both look totally disgusted with the whole process already! Molly did have a little "Curds and Whey" bucket, but she didn't want to hold it for more than a nanosecond.

Mom took Halloween afternoon off, so Mom, Max, and Molly carved their pumpkins after lunch (the little kids weren't able to stay up for the pumpkin carving the night before). Max enjoyed helping me scoop out the pumpkin guts, although his favorite part of the whole process was playing with the bowl of pumpkin seeds I set aside. Molly wasn't interested in the carving at all, but she LOVED her little pumpkin. She kept calling it a ball and throwing it around the room (it weathered the abuse pretty well). After that we all took naps, collected the big kids from school, and went over to Grandma and Grandpa's house to model costumes and have dinner (where Molly reaffirmed her love of pudding).

We got home a little before six and the big kids finished getting their Naruto costumes ready while I took M&M around to the neighbors' houses. Since her bedtime was fast approaching, Molly pretty much got tired of Halloween after the first couple of houses. We ended up going back home so I could put Molly to bed, and then Max, Big Brother, and Big Sister and I headed out to do some serious trick-or-treating (Dad stayed home to pass out the candy). I thought Max might get bored or tired or sick of wearing his costume, but he had a blast! I finally had to drag him home because his candy bucket was so full that it wouldn't hold another piece of candy.

He didn't quite get the whole concept of Halloween. In spite of weeks of coaching, Max kept forgetting to say "trick-or-treat," but he would start yelling, "Heeellllooooo!" as he was running up to the house. He was very good about his thank yous, however. I couldn't believe he walked as far or as long as he did -- he only started acting a little tired when we were about a half a block from home. Big Brother and Big Sister were more efficient than Max and I and ended up with a ton of candy.

When Max got up this morning, he asked for, "More spider, more walk!" He's tickled pink about his bucket full of candy, even though Mom and Dad are levying a rather hefty "tax" on his loot. We've been letting him pick out a small piece of candy for his dessert and he thinks that is SO much fun. I think we'll have even more fun next year, when Molly will be old enough to really participate as well. I hope everyone had a happy and safe Halloween!

Oh, and as an unrelated aside, November 1 marks the beginning of NABLOPOMO (an absolutely atrocious acronym that stands for National Blog Posting Month). I might participate this year, just for kicks. The good news is that you might be graced with a daily post at Buying Mockingbirds. The bad news is that I might have to resort to blogging about what I ate for dinner (as if endless baby anecdotes aren't bad enough!).