October 31, 2008

Happy Halloween!

Halloween was a busy time for all of us Lengels. There were school parties and a couple of nights of trick-or-treating. Thursday night the children did trick-or-treating at the high school where Patrick works. Friday night we opted to trick-or-treat in our neighborhood rather than attend the harvest festival at church which we knew would be very, very crowded. As it ended up, Patrick was needed at the high school football game to handle the music and I was left to take the children trick-or-treating, several of whom were quite tired already. The time came to get everyone in costume and my girls began to fall apart about what costume they were going to wear, as well as many other factors. Noelle was in hysterics because I had emptied her Halloween trick-or-treat bag into a big bowl so that she could reuse it and I guess she thought that I had taken her candy. She was beyond the point of reasoning. The good news is that we were able to get everyone in costume and out the door. Once we got outside everyone calmed down and we had such a fun time together.

Mack caught up with some friends from school and he enjoyed visiting with them a little bit as we trick-or-treated, and Noelle just enjoyed the entire experience. She was so funny because she was not as much concerned about the candy that the neighbors were offering her as she was with their pets. She got so excited over the dogs or cats that came to the door and wanted to love on each one of them. At one house, Noelle actually ran inside after a cat--kitty got away, and luckily our neighbors thought it was funny.

One neighbor was showing Noelle her Halloween yard decorations, and Noelle sat down in the empy lawn chair to try one of them out for herself. Next our neighbor (we had never met this lady before) picked Noelle up and took her over to show her one of her goulish decorations the lit up and moved in one of her trees. Noelle was taken with that as well and talked the lady's ear off.

All in all, Noelle enjoyed our neighbors, their pets, and the candy that she was given. By the end of our trick-or-treating time I noticed that she was waddling (worse than me! :). One lady commented on Noelle toddling up to her door and asked me how old she was. I told her that Noelle was 2 1/2 and that she was waddling because she probably had to use the potty. That kind lady invited us into her house so that Noelle could potty. Unfortunately for Noelle it was too late, she was wet, but it all worked out because that lady had a dog! :)

We headed home for a change of clothes, one happy Mommy and three (four) happy children. I got Noelle cleaned up and tucked in bed and came downstairs to get Mack and Elyse headed for bed. As I walked throught the living room I discovered our Australian Sheep Dog (Pepper) enjoying a lollipop. The lollipop stick was sticking out of his mouth and he was very happy with his grape tootsie roll pop ( I assume it must have fallen out of one of the kid's bags.) It was such a funny sight--I wish that I could have gotten a picture of it but my camera has given up the ghost!

Mack told me that it was the best Halloween that he has ever had. It certainly was a fun time, and Elyse and Mack were so patient with Noelle. I was proud of them.