Halloween, Dinglefest style
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I love Halloween. I've always loved it. I love costumes (and I think this is only the second year in my life that I was sans costume). I love kids. I love candy. I love connecting with neighbors. I love carved pumpkins. I love it.
(I could do without the gory costumes and skankoween get-ups and creepy decor and teenagers who show up sans costume yet expecting candy. But I mostly love it.)
When I realized that the timing of our church festival would also allow us to go trick-or-treating afterward, I was psyched. I wasn't feeling well enough to join them and Robbie needed to get to bed, so Lee and Jocelyn conquered the neighborhood on their own. I'm not sure which one of them enjoyed it more.
Before we get to the evening's festivities, though, I have one sweet story from the morning. Jocelyn woke up early, before the sun was up, which isn't all that unusual for her. She climbed into bed with me and said, "Let's go ring doorbells and say 'trick or treat' now!" Her reasoning: it was dark out, and it was Halloween; therefore, it was time to trick or treat. To her disappointment and for the benefit of relationship-building with our neighbors, we stayed in bed.
Now back to the evening. Here are my favorite people arriving at the church for the fall festival!
And a close up on the kiddos (Starsong, her favorite My Little Pony, and our little bumblebee)..
Before these moments, we had some cute (failed) attempts at a good sibling picture in the parking lot. Despite not getting a great one, there are a couple worth sharing.
And, continuing in our reverse chronological order, here is the pony a few weeks ago. When the costume - a special gift from my mom, Gammy - arrived, Jocelyn had to try it on. And check herself out.
(I could do without the gory costumes and skankoween get-ups and creepy decor and teenagers who show up sans costume yet expecting candy. But I mostly love it.)
When I realized that the timing of our church festival would also allow us to go trick-or-treating afterward, I was psyched. I wasn't feeling well enough to join them and Robbie needed to get to bed, so Lee and Jocelyn conquered the neighborhood on their own. I'm not sure which one of them enjoyed it more.
Before we get to the evening's festivities, though, I have one sweet story from the morning. Jocelyn woke up early, before the sun was up, which isn't all that unusual for her. She climbed into bed with me and said, "Let's go ring doorbells and say 'trick or treat' now!" Her reasoning: it was dark out, and it was Halloween; therefore, it was time to trick or treat. To her disappointment and for the benefit of relationship-building with our neighbors, we stayed in bed.
Now back to the evening. Here are my favorite people arriving at the church for the fall festival!
And a close up on the kiddos (Starsong, her favorite My Little Pony, and our little bumblebee)..
Before these moments, we had some cute (failed) attempts at a good sibling picture in the parking lot. Despite not getting a great one, there are a couple worth sharing.
And, continuing in our reverse chronological order, here is the pony a few weeks ago. When the costume - a special gift from my mom, Gammy - arrived, Jocelyn had to try it on. And check herself out.
We swapped out the tight elastic band for a ribbon to tie the pony's face on to her head, and we layered matching lavender pajamas underneath the costume to keep her warm and to avoid contributing to the PG (or higher) rating that most costumes have nowadays. She's a tall, leggy gal, so few dresses are appropriate on her without leggings anyway.
Oh, and we added pink furry boots. Because everything's better with pink furry boots.
Now back to last night...when Robbie walked into the church, Tina - who is a sweet friend as well as one of our pastors' wives - was handing out the welcome bags, which included a few pieces of candy. At this point, Robbie sat down on the floor, announced "candy!" and showed himself to be quite content if the evening had ended then. We were able to convince him to come a bit farther because there were balloons.
Then he discovered more candy. At one point, he was staggering around chanting "candy, candy, candy" with a sugar-induced smile. This guy is all for Halloween!
We did bring Robs along to a couple of our nearest neighbors' houses, and then he (and I) called it a night.
More pictures of the fall festival fun will come in a future post, but I hope you enjoyed these!
Thanks again, Gammy - she felt like a beautiful pony all night! And she carried around the plastic version of Starsong in her candy container to play with and show off.
Oh, and our sweet pony told me today that she wants to go trick-or-treating every night. I had to break the news to her that it only happens once a year.