Yes, we are still alive in Bloggerland

Well, hello there! Nice to see ya'! Sorry it's taken me so long to get some of these pictures up, but my excuse is definitely that my computer is so infuriatingly slow! It takes a very long time to do anything.
We had a great Halloween, despite still fighting a little sickness. Here are our fall festivities in pictures!

Alex has been looking forward all year to carving pumpkins again. He drew his own face on his pumpkin and cut most of it out, with help for the mouth.

This picture is fuzzy, but doesn't he look so happy to be working on his pumpkin?


A few days before Halloween we took the kids to a Pumpkin Walk in Shelley. It was only a can of food to get in and they had pumpkins everywhere painted and dressed up to look like movie scenes and favorite characters, with backdrops and everything. And we all got a full size candy bar, too! Maybe instead of having us bring food to give to the hungry, they should put the money from the candy bars to a good use. But I didn't complain and took mine happily!

In addition to the pumpkin scenes, they had lots of these cut-outs (I can't remember what they're called) and the kids thought that was fun, once they figured it out.

Danny, finally in touch with his feminine side.

My two wild things, embracing their true character.

The final result on the pumpkins. Alex's is on the right and Tristan's is on the left. I "helped" Lainey with hers, and I hope you can see it all right, because it turned out pretty cool.

Lainey in her kitty costume. Whenever someone asked her if she was a kitty, she would twirl and say, "Meow."

Tristan was a dragon and wanted to breathe fire. With my limited artistic abilities, this is what we came up with in 3 minutes. No one with or married to anyone with artistic talent is allowed to look. (This includes you, Maria!) Tristan was happy with the final result and breathed fire on anyone who asked if he was a dragon. Just doing our little part to help spread germs. :)

All three, ready to head out for candy!

I kind of forgot to take pictures once we were trick-or-treating, but I got this one of Lainey. This was how she held her bag most of the time.

That's all the pictures I have! The kids loved it and were totally happy to just do two streets (Evergreen and Pinion). Tristan asked the people handing out the candy several times if they were going to come with us or if they would like to come to our house, and always told everyone "Happy Halloween!" before he left. Alex always tried to reach in and get the piece of candy he wanted the most, and once after Tristan got his candy he stood there and then asked the lady if he could have some more. (She gave him some, but afterwards we talked to him about being polite.) Alex also told several of the ladies as we were leaving, "Bye, Grandma!" Luckily, they all were Grandmas and just laughed. Lainey just thought it was great fun, but couldn't understand why we wouldn't stop after the first house and let her just eat her piece of candy.

After Tricks-or-Treats we went to the Campbells, where they all dumped out their bags to see their loot and eat too much. On the way home, Tristan was sitting with his bag next to him and said, in a very weary kind of voice, "I don't think I will eat any more, or I am going to be sick." I kept seeing his fingers twitch toward his bag, and then he would sigh and drop his hand back down.

That night we took all the candy from their bags except for their bags of popcorn, hot cocoa and four or five pieces of chocolate each. The next morning Tristan asked me, "Does Daddy have all the candy?"

"Yes," I said.

"Where did he put it?"

"I don't know, Tristan."

"Oh." And that was all he ever said. I love it when they're little!

They can earn a piece or two a day now and that makes them happy and keeps the memory alive.

Oh, but Alex asked every night for at least the next week to go trick-or-treating and seemed very confused that this great idea wasn't done every night! I'm inclined to agree.