Halloween came early....

....which thankfully means that it's gone early too.

I really hate Halloween. There are many reasons, but just trust me on it. I don't like to dress up, masks (even on kids) scare the crap out of me, and I hate spending tons of money on crappy costumes that are worn for an hour before they fall apart.

Luckily, we didn't spend a penny on costumes this year. A friend gave us a couple of ninja costumes that we thought that the boys could wear, but Sarah pounced on those. We had to perform some surgery on them, but we were able to pull together a decent looking ninja - but without a hood.

Emily wore my pajamas - totally her idea.

Jared wore the solider costume from last year.

Alex wore his old Optimus Prime one - which is definitely too small, but he wanted to wear it so we made it work one last time.

Daniel - used the police officer one again.

I think this is the third year for the soldier and police officer (there's a firefighter too that didn't get used this time) - I swore that the boys would just rotate those until they either outgrew them or they fell apart, and so far it's working. Although Alex's father spent a small fortune and bought the Optimus Prime one for him last year.

So we went downtown for the trick or treating. Yes, it was tonight. This is the official - "close down Main Street, beg for candy from the businesses, and run around these 4 blocks with your costumes on and not worry about getting hit by a car night". It's always a madhouse, and we end up spending more time standing in line with some obnoxious teenager who is too old to be trick or treating in line behind us the entire time.

I was actually able to have a friend get a group shot.
That doesn't happen very often.

After we got home, the kids went through their loot and I of course, took a few pieces ("Hey, look! Fortune Cookies! You guys don't want them!" *snatch*) and then I made Emily get in the shower to get the orange hairspray out of her hair. They all ate enough candy to get a good sugar buzz and then the boys went to bed. The girls are still "working on cleaning their room" which means that they're sitting in there doing nothing but giggling and getting in trouble.

Tomorrow's plans? Church. That's it. Hopefully we can actually have most of the day to do absolutely nothing - but I'm pretty sure that will change.