Halloween 2012****picture overload

This was a great year for Halloween at our house.  I love that my kids are all old enough to pick out their own costumes, walk independently for trick or treating, be excited, dress themselves {mostly}, and go to parties and have a good time without being mean to others--for the most part.  Although it was a bit of a downer to have our Monday evening Tiny Tuckie parade/party delayed due to the hurricane, Halloween more than made up for it.  

Eli was able to wear his costume to school and went on a tiny parade with his class and did some fun Halloween themed crafts while he was there.  The other two weren't allowed to wear costumes to school but were able to change as soon as they got home {don't even get me started with how ridiculous it is that the school doesn't celebrate a children's holiday}.

This is honestly the best picture I got of all three children in costume attire.  Jesse and the kids were very excited to go trick or treating and they weren't the least bit interested in spending any amount of time taking pictures with me.....grrrrr

--and yes, that is red marker dots all over Robby's face; not a sudden case of chicken pox.  He decided to do this while we were at Sachem's halloween party--

I felt bad that we never carved our pumpkins for Halloween AGAIN, so I quickly did one after school. Most of our pumpkins were attacked by the crazy squirrels near our house.  They chewed holes through them and would proceed to eat the pumpkin seeds out.
So gross to walk outside to pumpkin guts strung all over the porch and half-rotted pumpkins.
I will definitely NOT miss this part of New England forest life

SPIDERMAN: Mr E

 BATMAN: Rubba

MONARCH BUTTERFLY: Maddie-Lynn

We started our Halloween post-school celebration near our friends house where we went on our annual Sachem parade to the community center showing off the spectacular dress up clothing. We tried to take a picture of all the kiddos, which was hilarious as always.  Eli was so excited he could hardly hold still and Robby truly thought he was Batman with his costume on and had some great poses to show all.  Maddie was hysterical with her "gymnastics" pose as she called it; she did a great job maintaining this position throughout most of the pictures.   

We truly have some magnificent friends here in New Hampshire and several of them organized this fun party where we all ate Pizza, treats, and drinks and they supplied lots of fun crafts and games for the kids to play.  Once again it was chaotic, hectic, semi-crazy, but loads of fun.  

I love how my boys are just starting to like doing coloring/craft projects (especially Robby)

Pretty soon it was time to go trick-or-treating.  With the days being shortened with earlier sunsets and the cooler weather, we all headed out much earlier than we were typically used to in Arizona.  By 5:30pm, the trick-or-treaters were in full swing in Sachem, the Toronto's included.  This year we cleaned out nearly the whole neighborhood over a space of an hour.  The kids did surprisingly well and I only got a few complaints out of them towards the end.  Robby and Maddie held their own bags the entire time and all three walked for the whole event {every other year we have brought our wagon along}.  The best part of all, was that we were able to trick-or-treat in a group with some of our good friends: Brynlee and Laura Hawkins, Candace, Joey, and JJ Monteleone, and for a little while Damon and Michelle Holbrook.  We all got a kick out of our excited kiddos practically forming a mob at each door demanding "candy candy candy".  We even headed over to the "shady section of Sachem".

The end result= more candy than we should ever eat, happy/tired children's faces, and fun-filled evening that we will always remember.

On a more serious note, we are so grateful for all the meaningful friendships that we have formed over the past fifteen months of living in New England.  Last summer, we were a bit unsure as we ventured far away from our state that held nearly all of our friends and family.  We had met several amazing families that would be going through the exact same experience with us, which DID make the move a bit easier.  But we were still hesitant about whether we really would be able to every feel at home somewhere other than Arizona.  Once we arrived it was full-swing parties, get togethers, playdates, etc. Although all of this was helpful, the children and I were still pretty homesick last year.  It was hard to be breaking into a new rhythm, and very difficult for some of my children to make new friends.  There were plenty of sad evenings, anbger at being pulled away from a familiar place and tears shed as we struggled to grow and become closer as a family.  Now looking back I can see just what a wonderful experience this has been.  I feel like I am a much more well rounded individual, I have more confidence in going out and making friends with people from diverse backgrounds, I have more confidence as a mother and wife, and I now know that I can feel at home wherever we go as long as I have my family with me.  I know that it will probably be just as difficult when we say goodbye next summer to all of our grad school friends, but I will also be able to bring along this experience with me as I prepare to settle down in yet another new city.  

So once again I wanted to give a shout out to all of my New England friends and say thank you for your friendships. I have grown to think of many of you as closer than just a friend....you are more like family to us.