October: The Grand Finale

October has managed to come and go, but I do have some fun pictures to show for it. 

Towards the end of the month, Stephanie had a fall party at school and I really wanted to go.  Unfortunately, I have Gwen and I felt like I shouldn't subject the classroom to her.  BUT, the day of the party, they were still one volunteer short, so I offered to come in with Gwen and everyone was very agreeable.  Gwen was fantastically well behaved, especially considering it was naptime.  She wouldn't let the official face painters work on her, but she let me.  In case you are wondering, that is a pumpkin and a bat... I had the exciting job of running the Bingo Table, and I was glad to finally put a face to all the names I have heard.   

Stephanie also had a day off of school.  We took it easy around the house, and managed to do some pumpkin decorating.  Honestly, I was a bit behind the curve on Halloween this year.  It was on a Monday, so I was not super excited about the day and there was no exciting costume preparations this year.  We did take the time to decorate some inside, as the kids really love to do it.  

And then there was the actual Halloween.  Stephanie really wanted to be Darth Vader.  Since we already had the costume, which I bought back in April when she tore holes in every pair of black pants she owned dressing up as Darth Vader every day, I was good with her choice.  That left the rest of us either putting together some sort of Star Wars theme family costume or all going solo.  Time won the battle, and we all fell back on the costume box.  You may recognize Gwen's, as Stephanie wore it at age 2 and 3.  That is one well loved Jack-O-Lantern costume!
We had a neighbor offer to coordinate getting pizza and hosting the kids at her house, which was to start at 5:00.  The kids were so crazy excited, I did everything I could think of to keep them from rushing to her house at 4:00, and that netted me a bunch of photos.  At one point, Gwen assembled pieces of several costumes, and Stephanie declared, "Gwen is going as one of everything!"

Also, Stephanie had her very first school field trip at the end of October, and got to pick a pumpkin.  She is pretty proud of it, and wanted to show it off in some of the pictures.

Our neighbor's Dad brought her piles and piles of corn for her kids to play in, and as one might predict, it was super popular with all the kids at the party!  I have found corn in several unexpected places since, and I can only imagine where she is finding it in her house. 

And Kevin finally made it home from work in time to put on some dragon wings to Sherpa his little Jack-O-Lantern around the neighborhood on his shoulders. 

We were one of three families that made it around our full neighborhood loop.  It is just short of a mile, but with many of the houses sitting either uphill or downhill, it was quite a trek (and I didn't have a little pumpkin on my shoulders the whole time!).  Other than one unfortunate collision between Darth Vader and a mailbox in the dark, Stephanie was a bouncy, running, trick or treating machine.  The neighbors were enthusiastic participants, and gave out generous handfuls of candy.  We had 13 kids in our group, and I think we were the vast majority of the trick-or-treaters on the block.  I feel so lucky to live in this place with this sweet little herd of children and their families.  We may not be the biggest neighborhood in town, but we must certainly be the best!