Halloween 2011 (part 2)

 Um, it was a little more work than I expected to get a good shot of the kids in their costumes.  Everytime I said, "1, 2, 3..." Poppy ran towards me, and my stupid idiot camera was never fast enough. 

 Finally Knight Hazel laid down the law with her sword and I got a shot.  Baseball bat and all.  But can we all still please agree I need a new camera?  A GOOD camera?  You know I'd use it.  This is the beginning of my Christmas hinting.  I've only done this five Christmases in a row.  Maybe one of these years it will stick.

 But back to the kids.  They were really cute, right?

 Trick-or-treating in our neighborhood is awesome.  The neighbors really deck out with decorations, scary-but-not-too-scary music, costumes, etc.  One house even had a platter of pumpkin muffins for the grown-ups, and another had a full spread on a table in their driveway - hot dogs, cookies, and big thermoses of steaming hot chocolate.  So thoughtful because it was kind of a chilly night, and it got us through the last stretch.  Several groups had fire pits going in their front yard and were making a fun night of it with friends. 

 We took Poppy with us to a few houses, then brought her home to stay with Ed while he ate dinner and carved our pumpkin - never too late!  After only a few trick-or-treaters at our door, Poppy caught on and took that duty upon herself.  First, watching out the window for people:

 Then handing them the candy when they came and calling, "Happy Halloween!"  Then her favorite part was closing the door and watching out the window again. 

 Here's the jack-o-lantern Ed carved - not bad, eh?  Love those template books!  A NICE camera could have taken an amazing shot of it in that low light.

 

The girls had a good haul - Hazel liked the Tootsie Rolls and Ginger discovered the wonder of Skittles - they are her new favorite treat by far.  I still go for the Reese's and Snickers myself. 

 

 And just for some final spooky fun, here's a picture of my brother Dave and me, circa 1981?  He just loaded a bunch of pics to his Facebook page in an album called, "Look Who Found a Scanner", and this was one of them.  Don't you miss the days when you had to make your own C3PO costume?  And you know I was working that wig!