Halloween

The kids had a chance today to wear their costumes at school for the big parade in front of all the other kids. Cathie was helping out in the kids classes and got a chance to see them both. Nate was an old man, and Madeline a modern pumpkin.

Our friend (and Nate and Maddie's kindergarten teacher) Sheri has some pretty amazing costumes each year, that leave her open to plenty of mockery later on by us. This year was no exception as she was a giant pencil.

Will, Monaca, my Dad and Sheri all came over for dinner and then to go trick-or-treating. The Madeline's went trick or treating together and Nate got to go solo for the first time with his two friends Austin and Enno.

We didn't have a ton of kids this year, so people must have been pretty generous. My Dad took Emily, Monaca took the Madeline's and Will and I monitored the boys for the first few houses while Cathie and Sheri manned the front door and sampled the candy:


Both Nate and Maddie hit every house in the neighborhood and did pretty well for themselves.

The oddest thing any of them got was by Nate, who got a rubber band and a box of raisins from the same person. Once they came back, Cathie and I "checked their candy" which means we went through and took a 10% tithe with anything that looked good (or dangerous, as we told them, and our parents had told us). This is a time honored tradition passed from generation to generation, only our kids have caught on to it.