Lions, Tigers, and Bears…Oh my!!

 

Lions,

tigers,

and bears...

Oh my!!

This may be my last year of having much influence over the kids' costumes... I had to attempt a "theme" :)

We started off our Halloween day with a trip to visit Grandma and Grandpa Ballweg.  Grandpa was nice enough to pick up chocolate donuts for us (which is also what led to the kids getting near naked).

Checking out Grandpa's walker

And that afternoon we went to show off our costumes at Grandma and Papa Cicci's, have lunch, and load up on more treats!

After some quick naps in the car, we did some Halloween activities and Gran and Papa came over to visit.  

Then it was time to suit up (yet again!) for trick-or-treating!

The crew :)

The kids did SO great trick-or-treating.  I think we were all impressed.  Rudy was so into it.  Early in the night he left one house, ran to me excitedly and said, "I want to do another one!!"  Lots of running from house to house - laughing, and squealing in excitement.  About half of the group had had enough after about an hour so the moms and younger kids went home to get the jack-o-latern pizzas (a Halloween staple) cooking and warm up... the dads continued on with the older kids that couldn't get enough!   

When everyone got back we ate pizza, had some drinks, ate too much candy, did a Halloween craft with the kids, and ended the night with a pallot on the floor and a Halloween movie playing... doesn't get much better than that!

 

The next morning when I was getting Ben down for his nap, Avery and Rudy found the face paint from the night before.  They decided they wanted whiskers AGAIN and did quite a remarkable job.  Good thing we had skipped baths the night before and were planning a quick scrub down anyway :)

Our partying didn't stop there - we celebrated Gran's birthday the next day.  The kids picked out her present - a snake bracelet.  Around this time the kids were on a walk with Gran when they saw a real live snake on Gran's driveway as they were coming home.  Avery was enthralled.  Rudy was scared.  Mom said it stayed pretty still and she didn't think it was alive, especially the way it was just hanging out on their driveway.  After coming inside and telling me all about it, they decided to take flashlights out with Papa and try and find him again --  but he was gone!  The kids still talk about it and always are on the lookout for snakes on their walks.   

Cake!

Lucky us to get to spend time with Tony, too!