Trick or Treat..."please"

We have been working all week on the polite factor associated with Halloween, how you don't grab into the bowl of candy, how you always say please and thank you, etc. We went on and on...only to have sickness strike and all of our hard work was for not. Depressing really. We got the girls up from their naps between 4:30pm-5pm. Olivia was burning up...nothing a little Motrin couldn't fix. So we grabbed the costumes and headed for the Koehlers, little ones in tow. We arrive to an adorable Buzz Lightyear (Zack) and a cute Lil Pumpkin (Juliette). We dressed Avery up...Petunia as we like to call her while she is sporting her Lil Skunk Costume. Olivia refused...and she was consistent, nothing was changing her mind. We tried to put it on her when she first got up, but she said "no, I don't want to be a Bee" right away, so we thought it would give it a rest and try again later...no such luck and with her being sick we didn't want to fight it, so she just walked around with everyone else dressed in her "Everyday Halloween" outfit.

Yes, Zack has Olivia in what you would call a "head lock"...

I have to admit, I am quite impressed with my restraint. I didn't fight Olivia at all, she said she didn't want to wear her costume and she didn't. Had she been feeling better we might have had a small battle on our hands, but it just wasn't worth the fight this go round...maybe later this week we will attempt to get a picture, or maybe not. Either way the tags are still on the costume and if Avery doesn't end up wearing it next year then we will be putting that bugger on eBay with a quickness.

Ben Tillar & Avery at his First Birthday Party earlier today..

Olivia had a blast following Zack around from house to house, she came home with a Treat Bag (Avery's) full of candy that Zack grabbed for her at each house we visited. We walked in the house, she sat down on the Family Room floor and just started going to town on the bag o' candy...I don't think so little lady...so we tried to explain to her (while taking it away) that we had to save it for later, she could have one piece every few days...well, take a look at how that went. (Please keep in mind, this child has had maybe....two pieces of candy in her ENTIRE life)

Not a great quality photo, but I wanted to make sure I snapped one of her cute as can be, treat bag. (Great Job Molly)

How cute is Madison? She is just a few weeks younger than Olivia and lives across the street...I happen to be a BIG fan of her costume and might steal the idea for a year to come.

This is Sweet Maya...she is a few weeks older than Avery and lives just down the street, if you couldn't tell, Zack is outnumbered, lots of girls in our 'hood.

This is how we trick or treat...wagon, large cup full of Rum & Diet Pepsi, and Nerds (that's what he is eating)...

If we could have found a Billy Goat costume for this one, we would have...


One last picture before we take it off and trade it in for a pair of cozy PJ's...night-night Lil Stinker.

So that was our night...oh wait, I should also mention that Riley LOATHES Halloween. He freaks out with every single ring of the door bell, every single knock on the door...he hates it. A few other things to note:

• Our neighborhood was depressing tonight, only 4-5 houses had their lights on when we went around at 6pm, is that because we were too early? Jeez, don't people know my kids go to bed at 7pm? So next year if we don't see a marked improvement I am going to send out a "Buck Up and Turns your Lights On" letter to the entire neighborhood, or better yet, I might just mention it at our Homeowners Association Meeting...shucks, that won't work either, I will be in Manila...I will have Brad deliver the message for me!
• You should NOT be talking on your cell phone while you are Trick or Treating...this girl rang our door bell, got our dog all riled up, and then continued to talk on her phone, giving Brad the "hold on" hand sign while she finished her conversation...are you kidding me? What is this world coming to?
• And seriously...if you don't have money for a costume, at least give it the ol' College Try. Put on all black, paint a nose and whiskers on your face and ta-da, a Black Cat, none of this "I don't have a costume, but I want your candy" crap, I have had it. I mean really?
• Props to the guy down the street who dressed up as a Dog Catcher for his daughter who was home sick with the flu, he didn't want her to miss out on the candy so he got all decked out, carried around this "bigger than a person" sized "Milkbone" made out of cardboard and went door to door with his son. Bless his heart, what a great Dad.