Treme: Homefront Log; The Early Days, Day 4

Halloween was a blast. The kids really had a great day. Bella crawled into bed with me and the first thing she said was, "Happy Halloween, Mommy!" She was very excited. Soccer was cancelled due to extremely muddy field conditions so it was nice to just laze around a little. We eventually got going and hit the grocery store. You'd think having two helpers would have made the trip a little easier, yet it seemed to take longer than usual. Could have been the constant Bella nagging but I can't say for sure. We saw Mrs. Corbo on the way into the store and saw Mrs. Dyer and baby in the store. The kids were thrilled. It was like rock star sighting.

We unloaded the groceries and the kids were a big help putting things away. I didn't even have to ask Colson to help. Wow! Bella helped but was more interested in putting the Halloween candy into the bowl.

I was hungry and in no mood to make lunch so we headed to Nordstrom Cafe. We had a great lunch and they were both so well behaved. They sat still and ate and colored their place mats. I almost hated to leave they were getting along so well. We rounded off our Hampton sightings on the way out when we saw Mrs. Kaiser lunching with her mom. We chatted for a minute with them, then were off. They told the story of seeing three teachers last night and today as well. They really got a kick out of it.

Next we headed to Lorenzo's and Alicia's house. Jr. Boom is getting quite large. He's very cute too. He showed his crawling skills a little but mostly played with toys. He was dressed as Yoda - very cute. They had cupcakes and cookies for the kids to decorate with icing and sprinkles. They loved that. Colson had about a pound of icing on his. We stayed for about an hour and had to get going as there was much to do to prepare for the evening.

We were going to get more pumpkins for carving but we all agreed time was running short and we probably would not have enough time to properly carve them. Oddly enough, I was not that disappointed about not carving a pumpkin. It typically is my favorite thing, but I just wasn't that into it. It's interesting to note that as we discussed not carving this year - we were not the only ones. A lot of folks said they just didn't feel like it. Strange.

Once we were home, the phone call flurry began. Suggestions were made and opinions were gathered as to where to hold the party. It was decided that the Lodge would be the safest bet as it had the best rain protection. So, I set into partial party mode. You should have seen me in my orange pashmina handling the leaf blower in style. Joe set up the pop up and Kerry arranged the furniture and we were all set. I had quite a few kids in the makeup chair this year. Bella wanted a horse shoe and USA on her cheek, Annaliese got spooky vampire makeup, I made up Emma Carter's face for her Hannah Montanna transformation, Bitty got whiskers and a pink nose. The party was in full swing by the time I got outside. The pork was delicious. That and the carrots were the only things I could eat but everything else looked great. The Lodge was full but not crowded and the couch can hold a good amount of people.

We headed out to trick or treat around 6:30. The kids were so excited. We got to Tenbury and the big kids broke off to go further while I stayed with the smaller ones. It began to ran soon after we turned around so we tried to pickup the pace a little. We got to Jack's house and everyone had some delicious cider. Jim took the hearse for a spin. We finished up at the Lopolito's house and decided to go see Gran who was hanging in the back yard. She of course had candy for all the kids. We realized that we missed the court so we took the kids over once the big kids got back. Bella was done at that point so i took her home while the older kids continued to the street with no name. They had a blast. The first thing Colson and Ben did when they got back was to weight their candy. Emma Carter had the most with 7 lbs.

The kids changed into PJ's and watched Paul Blart, Mall Cop. We were trying to arrange sleepovers but no one wanted to stay. Bella, Emma, Emma and Annaliese headed to the Carter's and didn't get to sleep until almost midnight. Colson was so jealous when he heard that.

Jim, Siri, Jen and I hung out for a while longer until there was no fire wood left. It was a realy fun night. We missed you.