October 27-30, 2010
Halloween Festivities

Wednesday night we started our Halloween festivities with Trunk or Treat at church. Poor Allison was sick and couldn't go, so I took the other 3. They had a great time, but they didn't have nearly as many people handing out candy as they have had in years past and so it took us longer to get there that we spent going through the cars to collect candy. The kids didn't no any different though, and enjoyed their time.

Thursday morning, brought Sam's Halloween Party at school.
Our little fireman posing for a picture.

As luck would have it, fireman Sam was the flag holder today.
Thought this was a cool picture with a fireman and our flag.

Posing for a class picture before they got to parade through the school in front of the other classrooms. They did the best they could for each of the kids to get to walk through the classrooms of their siblings. We caught Nicholas on the way to library, and were able to walk through Allison's class.

Friday afternoon brought parties for the bigger kids and the annual Halloween parade through downtown Ravenna.
Here is Allison and her class before the parade.

The Kindergarteners first paraded down to the 3rd grade wing, where they were paired up with a 3rd grader for the remainder of the parade. Allison was able to be paired up with Nicholas.

Sam was a spectator for the actual parade, but was lucky because several kids shared their candy with him as they walked by.

Allison and her friend Hunter, after enjoying their cupcakes with black frosting.

That must have been some really sour candy.

Friday night we carved pumpkins.

Gotta get your hands dirty to get all the messy stuff cleaned out.

Planning your creation takes lots of concentration.

They all tried to help with their pumpkins, but still found it quite difficult to handle the carving knife. Gabrielle, however, stuck to her task the longest and really did complete most of her intricate pumpkin herself. Now that they are trying to do more themselves, we will have to remember to choose more straightforward designs next year.

This year's designs turned out pretty cool though.

Even though Saturday was the 30th, it was the designated night for trick or treating in our neighborhood. Ready to hit the road....

This is just a glimpse of the massive amounts of crowds that we get in our neighborhood each year. Trick or Treating is only open for certain hours of the evening. When the designated time arrives, the fire trucks pull onto our street and block of the entrance and exit to the subdivision. You can walk in, but you can't drive in - to protect the trick or treaters.
This year, the crowds were even heavier than previous years - we think it was because people could trick or treat here on Saturday and go somewhere else on Sunday night. Many of our neighbors ran out of candy within the first hour, including our next door neighbor who was very upset that she ran out of candy right before my kids got there. She was so upset that she brought the kids a special treat a little later in the evening.

After the kids finished trick or treating, we returned to the house, lit our jack-o-lanterns and the kids got to enjoy giving out some candy of our own.