It's a JUNGLE out there!

Our kids seem to have slept off their sugar intoxication from last night's Halloween celebration and are all snuggled up on the couch together getting their weekly dose cartoons.

I didn't like Halloween much as a kid. I have memories of a plastic Bugs Bunny mask jabbing me in the eyeballs, or my mom pulling a flowery blue dress out of my closet tieing a ratty stuffed dog to my wrist and saying, "This will make you look like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz" (It didn't...at all..as evidenced by every greeter at the doors I knocked on saying "who are you supposed to be?), or worst of all, when I wore a ballerina costume from a ballet recital of mine only to have some sweet old lady say to me as I thanked her for her treats and turned to hit the next house, "Oh, honey, is your tooshie cold?" in front of all my cool 5th grade friends--not cool.

After I was too old to trick-or-treat, the holiday seemed especially absurd to me. Who dedicates an entire day to the spooky and the scary?

But, now that I have kids of my own, I love the celebration. I love their excitement over the costumes and decorations. I love how they take such delight in the costumes of others. Most of all, I love how it's a night when the community pours out onto the streets and kids can knock on any porch-lit door and receive the goodness of strangers...in the form of yummy treats.

This year our three went as jungle animals.

Meagan was a giraffe. Jeff refabbed a size 5 costume into a a size 9 by building up the neck with an oatmeal box and adding extra giraffe material. She towered over all the other trick-or-treaters and was very easy to spot in the crowds of kids last night.

But, her neck would get sore and she'd have to rest for a bit here and there. What's a giraffe to do?:

James was a lion...a most adorable lion. The costume was lovingly created by his Grammy, my mom.

Sidebar: My mom, the same mom who told me the blue-flowered dress and ratty stuffed dog would do just fine for Dorothy, is, as it turns out, an amazing costume designer. It makes me hopeful that I too have some unhidden talents that will reveal themselves when I'm no longer raising children 24/7. Every fall, my mom has made anywhere from 1-5 costumes for her grandchildren starting from when Meagan, her first grandchild, celebrated her first Halloween as a caterpillar at just 10 days old. And the costumes are all amazing! Case in point: Last year, my niece won a community-wide costume contest in a Grammy created costume as...get this...Dorothy!

So, James was a lion all day. As he headed off to school in his costume, he said, with lion-like pride, "Grammy was sure nice to make his so warm and cozy for me."

As part of the photo shoot, I asked him to growl like a lion for the picture. James, who might be the sweetest boy in the universe, could only muster up this much of a growl:

Charlie was a monkey. A friend lent him this costume many weeks ago and he has worn it for a portion of almost every day since. He was excited to take his monkey act on the road last night:

(I love the banana in the back pocket).

Right after the kids got out of school, we went trick-or-or treating on our tiny cul-de-sac delivering pumpkin cookies to our 4 neighbors like we do every year:

The JUNGLE was well received by Bill and Kylie down the street who always buy extra special full-size treats for the kids every year.

Then we headed over to a Halloween gathering at our good friends' home. The kids all had such a fun time together:

Charlie monkeying around with his favorite matte, Gabe.

Meagan gives the party a long thumbs-up!

We parents stood back and enjoyed the splendor of seeing our crowd of a giraffe, a lion, a monkey, a pirate, 2 cowgirls, a tooth fairy, Superman, and a witch run from door to door yelling "Trick-Or-Treat".

When we returned to the house, we insisted that the kids let an adult check their candy to make sure it was safe to eat.

The LION apparently didn't get the memo that the candy had to be inspected before eating it. When he dumped his bag out for inspection, it was mostly wrappers. He had apparently been snacking on his treats all along the trick-or-treat route!

The MONKEY took great pride in counting all of his treats and shooed anyone away who looked like they might want to sample his stash--even his own mother.

The GIRAFFE made some sneaky trades with her brothers to bulk up her stash with her favorite treats.

No matter the disguise, their true colors always shine.

Future Fire Fighter Turns Four

Emergency! Emergency! We have a 4-year old in the house! For the last 6 months, Charlie has been saying, "When it's my bir-day, I'm gonna have a fire engine bir-day party!" Our little guy loves all moving vehicles, especially ones with loud horns and sirens. We live near a fire station, so we hear the sirens often. Charlie always runs to the window hoping to catch glimpse of the engine whirring up the road. So, we weren't surprised by his request to spend his birthday with a fire engine. I made a little visit to the fire station and let them know that my little guy would like nothing better than to come visit the fire station with his buddies. Without hesitation, the fire fighter said "Sure, we'd love to have them! I'll leave the guys a note." So, the big day arrived and we headed down to the fire station where we'd meet up with Charlie's party guests and the fire fighters, of course. Well, wouldn't you know it! Some guy in town went and fell off his ladder right as we were supposed to start the party and, you guessed it, the fire fighters had to go and be the heroes that they are. One of the fire fighters left at the station assured Charlie that barring any other emergency, we could come back in an hour or two to tour the station. So we made some emergency decisions of our own, and walked the kids to the near-by park for other party festivities. We returned to the station after celebrating with a fire engine cake, dalmatian (cookies and cream) ice cream, presents, and play time. The fire fighters were glad we returned and treated all the kids to a deluxe tour of the station and even the fire engines. It was a great time and such a fun way to celebrate our little fire fighter!