Halloween Chills

Pumpkins. Parades. And premature snow. Our Halloween was full of fun, despite the surprisingly cold weather.

This year, Morgan went through lots of ideas for costumes -- a puppy, a crayon, a butterfly -- before finally settling on Cinderella. Meanwhile, Gwen was hooked on being Elmo the second we put the costume on her for the first time. (With temperatures in the upper 30's on Halloween night, Gwen's muppet fur coat ended up being a cozy choice.)

On Sunday morning, the girls ate an early "treat" of Halloween doughnuts before heading to the kitchen learn the "trick" of carving jack-o-lanterns. Morgan was a big help getting all the seeds out of her pumpkin and putting them in a big bowl. Gwen just liked squishing the pumpkin goop after Morgan put it in the bowl.

With a little help from Mom (okay, a lot of help), the pumpkins were transformed into Elmo and Grover from Sesame Street. (Spooky AND educational!)

On Monday, the girls' school held its annual "Harvest" parade. Cinderella Morgan smiled from ear to ear like a proud princess as she led her Preschool class around the parade route.

Gwen also loved the parade. While some of the kids in her Toddler class had to be carried through the parade route, Gwen strutted her stuff like she was the Grand Marshall. She smiled and waved to everyone. She only stopped once -- so she could give hugs to Mom and Dad. After the parade, Gwen was heartbroken when her teacher took her Elmo costume off. (Don't worry, Gwen, there's more Halloween fun yet to come.)

On Halloween night, we made the trip over to Medford, NJ to go trick or treating with Katie and Andrew in their Halloween-crazy neighborhood. In just over two hours, Morgan and Gwen had filled their baskets with enough candy to last them through Christmas.

Morgan was a trick-or-treating pro this year, quickly scurrying from house to house with the "big kids". Gwen was too young to remember her first Halloween last year. But it didn't take her long to realize that if she walks to the door and smiles, she got to take free candy. For the record, Gwen's candy of choice was Whoppers. (She loves her milk -- doesn't matter if it's plain or malted, apparently.)

By 7:00, Gwen had had her fill of Halloween fun and was ready to trade her bag of candy for a bottle of milk. A little while later, Cinderella Morgan's clock struck 12 (okay, it was more like 7:30). Another fun Halloween was in the books.