Today is Mommy's favorite holiday of the year – Halloween. We had a great Halloween for a bunch of reasons. THe girls wore very cute costumes – M was a photographer (white vest, black shirt and pants, press pass, and cameras around her neck) and A was Ginny Weasely (sp?) from Harry Potter. (Mommy hasn't read Harry Potter so she doesn't know how the characters are spelled). They looked so cute. N wore his lion costume and also looked adorable.

The girls started out the day early at Math Club. Then they had a few hours of school, and then the Halloween Parade, which is when all of the kids march (youngest to oldest) around the Lafayette track. It's the cutest thing in the world. After the parade, they had parties in their invidivual classrooms. I stuck around for some of the parties – very cute.

After school, we came home and took some pictures with the pumpkins. Then it was off to Nana's house to show off the costumes, and back home for a quick dinner and trick-or-treating. M decided she wasn't really in the mood to go out and trick-or-treat. She joined us for a few houses, and then we took her home. Grandma Sandy was here at the house with N, and Daddy got home, put N down, and convinced M to go out trick-or-treating with him to her 2nd grade teacher's house (Mrs. Nickel). So A and I met up with Daddy and M after about 30 minutes, and then Grampy met us at the same intersection. Grampy drove us over to one house that M wanted to go to, and then he drove us up Rittenhouse Street (stopping for some cotton candy) and then dropped us BACK at Mrs. Nickel's house so that A could trick-or-treat there. It was nice to have a chauffeur as we were all tired! We walked the 6 blocks back to our house, stopping at a few more houses, including our friend Jessie's (who gave us the rest of their candy).

We are so proud of the girls tonight. A was told by a few people how sweet she is – one even said she was the sweetest trick-or-treater they got all night. She was great about thanking them and making conversation. And M decided to give ALL of her candy away. She is giving some to soldiers and some to the Peace Club, who is collecting for homeless shelters. A gave a bunch of her candy to Peace Club too. Both girls are very generous and we are proud of them.

We returned home to see Grandma Sandy, who had dutifully kept a list of the costumes that came to our door tonight, which M had asked her to do.

It has been a loooong day and a loooong night. N is up for some reason (10:55) but will hopefully go to sleep very soon. Mommy is starting a new job tomorrow and is also tired!

Wonderful girls, fun evening, and feeling very lucky all around.

Some pics (more to come in future posts):