happy halloween!

Posing with Alexis, our neighbor, who was our first trick-or-treater!

Nana and the boys.

Our attempt at a family photo- unfortunately we waited until the end of the night!

We are exhausted! What a busy Halloween. We started the day with preschool, where they were having a huge Halloween carnival complete with a petting zoo, pumpkin farm, and train for the children to ride. We were out the door by 8:30am, and Alex was so excited! We pulled in, put on the firefighter costume in the car, and headed to Mrs. Anderson's classroom. Now keep in mind, Alex has been to quite a few costume party's this month, and has enjoyed ALL of them. As we walked into his classroom, he looked at Mrs. Anderson, who was dressed as Belle from Beauty and the Beast, and he shut his eyes as tight as he could and stopped moving. He stood there frozen, so I had to pick him up and carry him to the rug where all of the children were sitting happily in their costumes. Alex was totally terrified. He started to cry with these big crocodile tears and kept whispering to me, "Excuse me mommy, please don't leave me here!" It was so sad! I stayed with him, and we made our way outside for the parade. I gave him Rover (his stuffed dog) and eventually he relaxed and started having fun with his preschool buddies. When I went to pick him up a few hours later, I couldn't even get him to say hello to me. Once I coaxed him into the car (using some of the candy he got at the preschool trunk-or-treat), I asked him how his day was going. He said, "Great. I rode on the train with Shane. He drove, and I just enjoyed the ride." What a funny little man. What three-year-old says he "just enjoyed the ride"?!
Last night, after carving pumpkins and some neighborhood trick-or-treating, we headed to Alan's parents church for the party Papa was in charge of. He didn't mess around- this was no typical ward Halloween party. There were 2 bounce houses, a cake-walk, popcorn station, dinner for everyone, made-to-order cotton candy, of course trunk-or-treating and more. Alex got a real kick out of seeing Nana dressed as a cat, but highlight for him was his grape cotton candy. We are officially sugared out, and are spending today recuperating! Hope you all had a great day, too!