All Hallow's Eve

What kind of family blog would this be if we let the second biggest kid holiday of the year go unaddressed?!

As you can see, our home was graced by Luke Skywalker, Frankenstein, and a witch. The picture is from a Halloween party we attended two days before the big night. Michael was quite the skittish Jedi, completely refusing to play any party games and eyeing everyone with wary suspicion while his light saber was wisely set to 'incinerate'.

Andrea and Emma, on the other hand, took the cute approach to the notion of a costume, and did so with great success. If you can't make it out clearly, there was a red-eyed spider on Andrea's hat. Add that to her black nail polish, and she fit the bill for what Alexandra called a "retired witch". Of course our little pink leopard speaks for herself ... well, technically she doesn't yet, but you know what I mean.

Then, on the night of Halloween, everyone put the costumes back on to go after the sugary loot in full earnest. Wearing his dad's dress shoes helped Christian stay in character and walk like Frankenstein, but the socks we used to secure his feet in place didn't want to behave. I'm sure we would have doubled the night's haul if the green guy could have walked faster and not stopped so often to stuff the two extra pairs of socks back into his shoes.

As you can see, Michael acts all tough while he's safely locked inside his own home. Out in the cold, hard street, however, it's another story...

We happened upon a porch where the man of the house was greeting the trick-or-treaters in a full Darth Vader costume. He held his red light saber in his lap (which seems a little risky to me) and waited for our approach. Our Luke Skywalker left his light saber with his dad so as not to antagonize the dark lord of the Sith while he besought him for candy. Seeing Michael's trepidation, Darth Vader gave him a wide berth. Still, he couldn't restrain himself from the obvious. "I am your father," he said as he quietly chuckled to himself. I would have given a king-sized KitKat to have been able to take a picture of them together, but it was clear that under no circumstances was the Jedi going to be convinced to pose with his arch nemesis for a photo op. As we walked away from the house and to the street corner, Michael looked up with great concern and said, "He's not my dad. You're my dad. You're my dad."

Yes, Michael. I'm your dad.