The Lee Family: Halloween!

With Halloween falling on a Monday night, we got the girls to bed early on Sunday night so they would be rested and ready to trick-or-treat! After the girls got home from school, Sofia announced "tonight is Halloween and we get to trick-or-treat!" to which I told her that we actually had plans and that I'd forgotten it was Halloween. CK is usually the one who jokes around, so she nearly started crying! I quickly reassured her that I was kidding. The girls decided months ago that they wanted to be Star Wars characters - Sofia as Boba Fett and Olivia as Queen Amidala. I went ahead and bought the costumes months ago so they could dress up and play in them well before last night, which they did. So they got a lot of use out of their costumes, however, I think by the time October arrived neither one of them were super excited to use the costumes. I never suggested going another route, and once they were home Monday from school they were very excited to get in their costumes.

The four of us ate chicken chili and corn bread and then the girls got into their costumes. Sofia's Boba Fett costume took her less than 5 minutes to get into and she was immediately in character with her jet pack and bounty hunter gun! She was super excited! Olivia got into her Queen Amidala costume and then I painted her face white and added one red dot (bright red lipstick) on each cheek as well as red lipstick to her lips. I had to add a pretty thick layer of white face paint, so it stayed wet for longer than I expected but looked great! I assumed it would look perfect for the pictures I planned to take after they were both dressed and then would be all over by the end of the evening.

The girls were all set and we put the "hot dog" costume on Buddy and then headed out front to take pictures. It was actually pretty warm outside and still in the low 80s and would be in the 70s by the end of our trick-or-treating adventure. We took pictures of the girls and Buddy and then joined up with Antonio, Luca and Brandon! The group headed to Brandon's house for the first official "trick-or-treat" candy. Dana gave each the kids a full-sized candy bars! Yum! From there, we headed down the neighborhood toward Mitzi's house, with Antonio and Olivia leading the way from door to door. Since it was just 6:30pm, most of our neighbors weren't home yet. Plus, we don't get any trick-or-treaters other than our kids, so we don't even buy candy!

After we visited Mitzi, the kids knocked on Peter and Tammy's front door and Calista came out to join all of us. Calista was dressed as a princess and is just a few months younger than Olivia. She's so cute and was so excited to go trick-or-treating! We regrouped by our neighborhood entrance and walked across the street to the neighborhood we have visited on nearly every Halloween since we moved here eight years ago. Its a U-shaped neighborhood that is the perfect size for trick-or-treating and many of the houses are decorated and owners sit in front of their homes to pass out candy. Olivia, Calista and Antonio raced from door to door, running across yards, while Sofia and Brandon stuck together and walked and Luca got a ride in his stroller, then would get out and walk to each door to say "trick-or-treat" in the cutest voice! I was surprised at how many of the houses were dark without anyone opening doors and passing out candy. Usually most of the homes occupied and passing out candy, but last night there were nearly half of the homes that were dark. I know a lot of Sofia's classmates actually celebrated on Saturday in their neighborhoods or went to a church "Trunk or Treat." About halfway around the neighborhood, Sofia started keeping up with Luca and would walk with him to each door and tell him "What do you say?" It was absolutely adorable! Meanwhile, Calista, Antonio and Olivia kept up running from house to house while Brandon stuck in between the groups. There also seemed to be less kids dressed up and trick-or-treating in the neighborhood than in past years.

When we were just over halfway through the neighborhood, Olivia was done! She sat down on the side of the sidewalk, dug through her candy and said "I need water and want to go home." Thankfully Calista's Grandpa arrived shortly afterwards to take Calista, Tammy and Peter home and CK and Olivia caught a ride across the street with them. It probably saved a lot of tears and sadness. The rest of us continued through the neighborhood collecting candy and by the end of the neighborhood Marco had the minivan and all the kids climbed in. I walked back across the street with Todd and met up with Sofia and Brandon. We headed inside to find CK and a showered and pajama-wearing Olivia figuring out what candy to eat next. They said they were enjoying a "candy eating party" together. Sofia was excited to dig into her candy and we let her have a few pieces before getting a shower and into her pajamas. Both girls collected a little over half of their candy containers of candy, which is a lot less than past years, but probably not a bad thing. Such a fun night!

A close-up of Queen Amidala