Happy Halloween!

We had a great Halloween this year! Not only did the weather cooperate (not too cold, no rain, almost full moon), but now that the kids are bigger, I'm not so stressed out when we go trick-or-treating in Winslow. It was much easier to keep track of them and I knew that if I lost sight of Ben for a minute he would stay put until we made eye contact again. I love the tradition Winslow has of closing down the main street and letting all the shop-keepers hand out candy. We try to get there right when it starts, though, because it gets crazy!

Kylie was "swine flew" this year; she thought of it herself. It was hilarious to see people's reactions when they got it! Jillian was the "wolf who ate Red Riding Hood's grandma", which got many great comments as well. She convinced me to be Red Riding Hood. Ben was a Jawa from Star Wars. His glowing eyes looked so cool when it got dark. Many people didn't know what he was, though, and one lady even asked, "Are you Harry Potter?" Ummm....NO!

The back sides of their costumes were just as great as the front sides!

We met up with Tif in Winslow. She was Amelia Earhart, complete with the airplane!

After Winslow, we went to Tif's neighborhood for more trick-or-treating, then on to a friend's neighborhood for even more. Kylie was going to a party at their house and the kids "needed" more candy.

I ended up staying at the party with Kylie and 12 other kids her age. My friend did a great job coming up with scary, gross things for the kids. First they watched Coraline, then she had some "body parts" in a bag for them to identify. (Turkey innards for the heart, liver, etc. and a whole, dried banana that looked surprisingly like a dried up finger! Eeewww! )

As if that wasn't enough to gross them out, she did a "Fear Factor" game! I wish I had taken pictures. Oh My Goodness, was it gross! She started off with raw herring. Most of the kids were able to handle that one. Next was the dried banana, which looked nasty, but Kylie said it tasted like a really old banana, which is was. Then came the anchovy, which Kylie couldn't get down, so she was out. Then a raw oyster, by then there were five kids left. Then the REALLY nasty one...a LIVE worm! No one could get it down. There was puking. It was disgusting. The final challenge was raw squid. All five of the kids who were left ate that, so it was back to the worm. My friend didn't have enough worms, so she cut them in half and let the kids drink water with it to get it down. Amazingly, all five did it! UGH! All for a giant Hershey bar. Crazy! I'm glad Kylie stopped when she did. She told me later that she probably could have finished the anchovy, but when she saw the oyster, she knew she couldn't do it. It brought back memories of her "fish eyeball" experience...

After Fear Factor, my friend told the kids a very scary story, and sent them home!

A perfect Halloween, complete with creative costumes, good weather, lots of candy, and a gross party!