Five Little Pumpkins

All right, all right!  You wanna see really cute pictures of my kids Halloween night?  Fine.

Here's Joshua.  He's a Bakugan Draganoid, whatever the heck that is. 

Rebecca as Batgirl.  If you knew her, you might say, "huh?"  Really?  But that's what she wanted this year. 

Christina.  Innocent enough looking fairy, with a skirt that actually lighted up (not shown in the picture, sorry).

Gabriel.  Yes, he was a pirate last year.  No, he didn't want a new costume.  Worked for us...and saved money too. 

And the most precious little tomato you ever did see...Theresa.  Totally edible, right? ;-)  I made the costume for Rebecca when she was a baby, and it fit Theresa perfectly. 

Gotta have a group shot before hitting the streets.  I know...I really don't have five "little" pumpkins...the older three are rather big kiddos...makes me a little sad...boo hoo. 

Not to be outdone by Halloween, our church encourages kids to dress up as their favorite saint and process in for the All Saints Day Mass.  Christina was the only one who wanted to costume up, so she went as the Blessed Mother, "because Mary is my middle name."  We lucked out, borrowed the robe from a friend, and I sewed the veil. I thought she looked awesome. 

Joshua ended up trick-or-treating with his best friend on the other side of our neighborhood.  The other kids happily went from door to door with David.  We took turns carrying Theresa until she started to fuss, and I knew our little tomato was done.  So I went home early and tucked her into bed.  The rest were not far behind, and after munching on a few choice pieces of candy, and a good teeth brushing, we got them to bed.  Joshua came home relatively early, and we got him to bed by 9:00 o'clock. 

I will say this...next year, I think I may have to finally stay home and pass out candy.  In previous years, we've put a bowl of candy out on the front porch.  Well, after we started out, and passed by our house on the other side of our street, I crossed over to see how our candy was holding out.  It was gone...all of it.  One big, full bowl gone.  Greedy little hooligans...we had left our house barely 5 minutes ago.  I knew it wasn't anyone on our street, because they were all out with us, and their parents would have been watchful.  So I replenished the bowl, and caught up with the rest of my crew.  I knew it would be gone in minutes...oh well. 

Something else bothered me.  We had a lot of kids trick-or-treating that night who don't live in our neighborhood.  That's fine...except a LOT of them weren't wearing costumes.  No mask, face paint, or even a hat...nothing.  Maybe I'm thinking too much, but come on.  If you're getting free candy, at least make an effort.  And manners...well, those must be obsolete these days.  When I refilled our bowl, one little boy took a big handful...he could barely hold it all.  I told him, "Just one young man!"  He didn't listen and darted off...his momma was waiting in the street and didn't say a word.  Nice...real classy guys.  I'm not sure I feel like passing it out to kids who aren't in costume or have no manners.  But we'll see...maybe next year I will stay home.  I realize I can't police everyone, and Halloween is supposed to be fun...right?

Speaking of candy, I'll going to go get my stash and have a piece.  Or two... ;-)