Halloween has been non-stop this week! It started off with the great costume hunt. Brianna and Nate were going to be their imaginary Jedi Knights. (They were even going to sew their costumes themselves.) Natalie was going to wear Brianna's Susan costume from Narnia, which would need to be altered to fit. As for William, that proved easy. He had no opinion. Costumes became very difficult however when our sewing machine broke at the beginning of the week. We had to come up with some very last minute costumes. Luckily, Target had their costumes and costume accessories 30% off. So, we purchased an Ariel costume for Natalie, 2 Spiderman Costumes, 1 red one for William and a black one for Nate, and Brianna decided to finally be a cat, which we had all the supplies for at home. The kids really enjoyed their costumes when all was said and done.

Yesterday we celebated Halloween with our Fall Family Festival put on by our homeschool group SHARE. We all had a blast. The turnout was fantastic! It was so nice because my friend Kathryn came up with the idea of having each family attending prepare an activity for it. Why have we not thought of this before! It went like a charm. We had a cake walk, pin the wart on the witch, pumpkin decorating, a balloon toss, guessing games, broom ball, a spider-walk relay, mummy wrapping, face painting, etc... No one wanted to leave, so we stayed from 11-3. You can say the kids, and mom, were really worn out by the time we got home.

Friday, the damage was evident. The kids were on a major sugar high! Both Natalie and William were non-stop all day. The good thing about that, however, was that Trick-or-Treating would walk every last bit of it out of them. It is our annual tradition to go to Sam's parents house on Halloween night. Not only do they have great houses for trick-or-treating in their neighborhood, it is also Barbara's birthday. We all love to spend her exciting birthday night with her. This year was no exception! Their neighborhood had more visitors than in years past, which was nice to see, and the neighbors seem to get friendlier and friendlier. I think they realize we have been doing this for 10 years now. After walking for over an hour, and carrying the little ones the last part of the way, Sam and I were grateful the night came to a close. The kids were very satisfied with life, and we were exhausted! Sleep never felt so great! (Too bad it would have end so soon!)