Happy Halloween: October 31, 2013

 Guess who came to trick or treat this year?  The kids were very excited to welcome Grammy and Grandpa from "Callyafornia", as Devon calls it.

 We made the most of their fall arrival, hitting TWO fall festivals and Chick-fil-A on the way home.

 The girls enjoyed beating on the pumpkins and hearing the sounds they made. 

 Devon was king of the mountain... and the bounce house.

Mommy and Daddy had to be away for a week, hence the rather hastily arranged visit. More on that later, but the reason is a whole 'nother post at least.

Devon and Grandpa had deep conversations.

Grammy led storytime.

The kids watched Bambi for the first time.  Mommy's first reaction is that it was a questionable choice for three kids spending their first long separation from their parents, but Grandpa assures me that he skipped the part about Bambi's mother.... you know.

They went shopping and played trains.  They went to the splash pad.

 They went to tots, giving Grammy and Grandpa a little break.  Before she left, Mommy painstakingly laid out the Halloween costumes for the kids to wear.  She just forgot to double check the time and told Grammy that the Halloween parade was Wednesday and not Monday.  Mom of the year!!!

Aaaaaahhhhhhhhhh.....

Mommy and Daddy walked off a plane at 2 pm Thursday, just enough time to drive home and get in the car to make Trunk or Treat with the family.  This was the year where nobody wanted to wear a costume,  Devon resisted his engineer's hat and the girls were barely convinced to wear a tutu.

Devon enjoyed playing games.

Once again, king of the bounce house.

Sometimes the girls were convinced to participate, sometimes not.  Devon immediately tried to unwrap each piece of candy, especially the suckers.  This was fine at the first booth, because then he had a sucker in his mouth.  At the second booth, when he threatened a tantrum because it was suggested that he NOT unwrap another sucker, he was allowed to unwrap the second sucker and the first sucker was given to Carrie.  Then storms threatened on the Melina front because she was the only child without a sucker.  Mommy begged a third sucker and everyone was sticky.  I mean, happy.

We got a few family pictures before it got dark.  This one got quite a few laughs because of my unintentional headdress.  I appear to have gone as a palm tree.

Afterwards, Devon went trick or treating.  He was a little unclear on whether or not he was supposed to go in people's houses.  Thankfully, his friends Robert and Ryan didn't mind.

He inspected every decoration, yelled "Trick or Treat" at every door as soon as he knocked, and then conversed eclectically with the neighbors.  He said thank you most of the time.

Grammy and Grandpa go back to California tomorrow.  We celebrated today with one last beach day.  It really did feel final.  Sorry again to cryptically be referring to events that have not made it to the blog yet, but I promise to give an update in a few days.

Let me just say for now that this will NOT be our October next year....