Halloween

Halloween was wet this year.  Both Treat Street the Friday before (trick-or-treating at downtown businesses) and Halloween night itself were rainy and breezy.  Therefore, no photos of the kids trick-or-treating.  No photos of Karl in his costume at all.

Rather foolishly, I waited until the week before Halloween to buy their pumpkins.   We got two of the last eight pumpkins at the bottom of the pumpkin crate.  Thankfully at their ages the kids weren't fussy.

This picture describes the kids perfectly - Clare loved scooping, sorting seeds, digging her hands in the goop, everything. Karl freaked out when goopy seeds fell on his pants and refused to touch his pumpkin.  Nora was right in the center of everything, pattering around in her bare feet to see what everyone was doing. 

Nora wasn't afraid of the goop. 

Neither was Clare.

Clare's pumpkin.  (Karl's is the one at the top of the blog.)

Friday's elementary school parade was held outside (for only the second time in six years) on the relatively warm day before Halloween.  Clare was a fairy princess.  (For the second year in a row - I realized afterward that she thought her only choice for a costume was something from our dress-up bin.  Oops.) 

Isn't she cute?

Poor Nora got sick with a bad cold on Halloween day.  She stayed inside with me while Clare and Karl walked a miserable block in the rain with Matt.  They scored a good amount of candy for only walking around one block.  

We always trick-or-treat with my brother Brad and his family.  They have a sweet kitty that Karl took a liking to.  Makes me miss having a cat, sort of.