Halloween

Ben just left with the kids to go trick-or-treating.  It's 6 p.m. and we couldn't hold them back any longer!  They were ready shortly after 5.  I stood on the porch and watched them go - my adorable little elephant and my big monarch butterfly.  (That's Monarch with a 'k' sound at the end, not a 'ch' as Rachel keeps saying!)

I watched them walk down the street, Rachel skipping ahead, wings bobbing up and down.  Then I realized that she is spreading her wings, both literally and metaphorically.  She's getting so big so fast.  Lots of someones warned us that this would happen, but we didn't really believe it.  And yet here we are, 6 years after her first Halloween, back in the same neighbourhood.

This is the first year that we haven't been all together for Halloween activities.  For the past two years, we've done Boo at the Zoo in Kansas City on the weekend before Halloween, as well as trick-or-treating during the day at Town Center Plaza.  This year I'm home handing out candy and Ben's off with the girls.

Originally they were going to go until their little buckets were full and then come home.  They just knocked on the door to say that their buckets were full, and could they please have some bigger bags!  I guess they've figured it out after all.  Anna is wearing the handmade elephant costume that I got for Rachel off of Ebay when she was 2.  She also has a matching monarch butterfly costume, but opted for the elephant at the last minute. 

The girls know full well that whatever non-kosher goodies they come home with will be donated somewhere.  I suspect that they'll still have plenty of junk that they'll forget about in a couple of days anyway! 

And for those who are wondering, we talked about Halloween as a family and decided that as long as we donate the non-kosher candy, it's ok to trick-or-treat right now.  We'll re-visit as they get older, but who am I kidding?  Cute kids in costume?  Yeah, we'll do that.