scary sunday

Remember when Halloween was fun? Not when you were a kid taking candy from strangers, but when you were older...like in college and during the single days of your early 20's. Halloween was an excuse to dress like an idiot and drink like an ever bigger one. I used to love Halloween; I loved the costumes and the parties; I even met my husband on Halloween. It was one of my favorite holidays...and then I had kids.

The pictures below may tell a different story, but Halloween 2010 was not the jovial affair it appears to have been. Before the "fun" even began, I had two screaming children on the front porch--one in the Baby Bjorn with a deafening cry inches from my eardrum and the other screaming "I don't want to wear this! I don't want to wear this!" while attempting to rip off his Huck Finn costume. Being the crazy parents we are, we soldiered on and forced the kids to have fun at the neighborhood parade (where we quickly realized we weren't the only ones dealing with a temper tantrum...phew!)

Scout as the happy little pig following a ten-minute scream-a-thon that left me a little deaf and a lot exhausted.

You wouldn't know by looking at him, but minutes before this picture was snapped, Catcher was a crazy person with tears streaming down his face. Hence, we weren't able to put the "finishing touches" on his costume, which included dirt and sticks.

The neighborhood folk gathering for the kids' parade. Now, I come from a place that knows a thing or two about parades, and I have to say that it was pretty lame. But at least the dogs got into the spirit of things (below).

There was pizza at the end of the parade to keep the kids happy, and Alex and Catcher sat down for a little man-to-man talk...

Meanwhile, the screaming baby had fallen asleep against my chest, and for a couple of minutes we looked like a model family.

Whoever ordered the fire truck to appear at the end of the block was a genius! After Catcher was allowed to climb around inside for a few minutes, he took a quick break to pose while standing on the rear bumper. The sheer exhaustion on his face tells you how we all felt at that moment...I can't wait until next year.