halloween

I know, it's been over a week since I've updated. I, too, am sick of looking at pics of our jack-o-lanterns. No matter how creative or fabulously sculpted they are, no one wants to see them for a week straight.

I'm pretty much writing this out of a feeling of obligation and for posterity's sake, since it feels like a year has passed since Halloween. We've had germ after germ invading our house for more than 10 days now. Gabriel missed all of his Halloween festivities at school, and Taylor and Paige both missed two days this week due to strep. Good times for their mom. Then, just because I was recently bragging that I rarely catch my kids' illnesses, I've been down the last 2 days myself. Hopefully, we'll all be back to our fun selves soon.

Halloween was fun. We had some of Todd's family over for home-made chicken noodle soup. It was yummy, even if it was a bit warm outside for hot soup. The kids got prettied up and our friends and family met us for trick-or-treating. We doped Gabriel up with some Benadryl and off we went. We even let Taylor and Austin go off with friends on their own this year (that's a big step for me). The kids had fun running from door to door. Some of the houses were a bit spooky and might have scarred a few kids for life (I still remember which houses I thought were scary as a kid). Once they collected enough candy for their sugar overdose, we set up a spooky Halloween movie in the backyard. The girls stayed hidden under their blankets for much of the time.

[Gabriel as a vampire, Paige - the devil (with Hannah M), Taylor as some sort of hobo]