trick or treating.

whew! this weekend was a total whirlwind. my parents got into town friday afternoon, we picked the kidlets up from their day of halloween fun at school, got ready for trick or treating, handed out candy, stayed up late, then saturday we threw emme's fourth birthday party with 60 people at our house. wheeeee.

anyway. halloween this year was definitely the best yet. we loved being in our new neighborhood (last year we went to a friends', which was awesome, but still not the same as being on your own turf) - there were lots of kiddos out and about and we had a good group of trick-or-treaters. and of course the caliber of candy in our 'hood was excellent, which is super important, right? haha. it was so fun having jj and kk and joejoe here, too - the kids loved it, and it reminded me of my own childhood romping through the neighborhood and eating chili frito pie and sorting candy with neighbors in my brother's room after trick or treating.

the kids both really "got" it this year - emme did last year, but this year she was full speed ahead, and hollis was fired up about the whole thing too. he didn't have the stamina she did, but he loved wearing his costume and he was really cute walking up to doors and taking one piece of candy so so carefully. and of course the eating of the candy - something they rarely if ever get - was like a small slice of heaven for them.

weeks ago i decided to embrace their (meaning emme's) wishes about halloween costumes and just let it go (see what i did there?) that she really wanted to be queen elsa. this was hard for my weird working mother's guilt since i've made their costumes every year until this point and was really hoping to do so again this year. also, i was sure there would be 9 million elsas (which of course there were) and i have a stupid desire for my kids' stuff to be original and clever. but. i did come into my right mind about it all - what is the point of halloween anyway? it's for kids to bro down and be excited and get candy and stay up too late and eat refined sugar. all of my fantastic memories of my own childhood halloweens are about running around and that first fall-ish weather and playing with friends and laughing a lot. not a single one of them is about the quality or originality of my costume. so, we all learned lessons this year. and my kids were elsa and olaf. and they flipping loved every minute of it.

my two favorite things: emme's wig and hollis's little baby tush in his olaf costume. too much.