Halloween is definitely one of those holidays that is more and more fun as the kids get older. Well, come to think of it, I think that all the holidays are more fun as they get older, but especially Halloween. Luke and Anna get so excited about it, and there are so many Fall/Halloween activities to do together as a family.
Since we were in town this year, we got to go to Woodbine Family’s trunk or treat. We had decided to do our trunk like Hogwarts, and have the kids dress up as Harry and Hermione.
We love this tree on Radnor’s property. It provides such a good fall scene.
Honestly, I wasn’t as impressed with our trunk as I thought I would be. For all our HP gear, it looked a little…small when we were done. However, I was surprised to find that it was a huge hit, especially among the teens!
In fact, it soon became clear that I would not need to man the trunk at all, as Tyler and Jason apparently had assumed that responsibility for themselves:
Thus, while I walked around and took pictures for our Woodbine yearbook, the boys handled the trunk. Jason passed out candy, and Tyler became an expert at making Hedwig, the owl, seem alive.
It is actually a puppet, though it doesn’t appear to be. Tyler would make it turn its head and move at just the right time to make young kids squeal with delight/fear. It was a source of endless fascination for both kids and teens throughout the night.
Fidel (above) was perhaps the biggest fan of our trunk. I never knew how much he liked Harry Potter! And for her part, Anna practically floated back to our trunk after she had gone around and gotten candy. She was bursting with the news that “everybody had admired her costume. She got so many comments about it. In fact, one person even gave her extra candy because her costume was so cool.” I had to suppress a smile while listening to her over-the-top raves, but I was glad that we had trotted out these costumes again. We had worn them last year for Halloween in Summerville and received a middling response, but who knew that Woodbine would be such big fans??
We had a great turnout for trunk or treat. And we weren’t the only ones with popular costumes. Perhaps my favorites were Heidi and Michael as bank robbers, and Everley as a bag of money!
We also had The Big Bang Theory and ET:
I love this shot I got of the ministers together:
My kids were happy with their haul:
It was a successful night all around.
The next afternoon, we drove to Gaga’s house. We really don’t have a good neighborhood for trick or treating in Nashville, and no obvious prospects for alternatives. Last year, we were in Summerville, so we’ve only actually trick or treated in Nashville one time. This year, it occurred to me to use the opportunity to see Gaga and Granddad in Macon. Our friend, Amanda, always has a big fall party, and she has an excellent trick or treating neighborhood. Besides, I hadn’t visited Macon since July. The kids and my parents, of course, were thrilled at the prospect.
The only hiccup in our plan was that, upon arrival in Macon, Luke had a fever—apparently, the same virus that Anna and Everley had. He felt sick all Thursday night and Friday, so we had to miss the fall party, to everyone’s disappointment. However, Luke was undeterred from trick or treating, so we decided to go out in Gaga’s neighborhood instead. But first, of course, we had to get some pictures:
I just love how these turned out!
We have a tradition at “practicing” at our house before we head out.
I only took a few trick or treating pictures. There wasn’t much participation in their neighborhood, so eventually mom just got the car, and we drove around hitting the houses with their lights on.
My kids have never had huge trick or treat stamina, so before long, they were ready to come home and dig into their haul.
Luke’s fever had come back before the end of trick or treating, so after briefly gorging on candy, we got our pajamas on, brushed our teeth, and piled in mom’s bed to watch The Hobbit. It was a cozy end to a fun night.
