Halloween

I love Halloween, it's possibly my favorite holiday. Some day I will have the house that is so scary it sends children screaming and crying. I always loved those extra scary houses. So of course I get excited on Halloween, every year. This year Halloween was extra special. As an added bonus the Phillies finally won the world series again, after 28 years of waiting, two days before Halloween. The Phillies parade was on Halloween, so we had a quite an exciting day. It was the first time I have ever allowed my children to skip school, and with the exception of another world series win by the Phillies, it will also be the last.

Scott was originally going to take the Courtney and Ryan to the parade and I was gonna stay home w/ Christian. However, after dealing w/ the massive and rowdy crowd at the train station, as train after train continued to pass right by because they were packed full from the very first stop and working off only 2 hours of sleep, he decided to come home and have me give it a go. So the kids and I drove into the northeast and hopped the El down to city hall. I had no delays or problems (until the journey home). Let me just warn you that these words will not do it justice, but the city was INSANE! Every sidewalk, street and corner were packed full of crazy Phillies fans. I wouldn't let go of my kids hands for fear of loosing them in the crowd. We tried our best to get w/in sight range of the parade, to no avail. It was an impossibility, this coming from one who believes that nearly nothing is impossible. We were packed in there like sardines in a can. The only time the kids were able to see any of the players was when the random lady next to us offered up her rather large husband to lift the kids up. It was nice to finally see some kindness from strangers in Philly. That day the kindness was not exactly as prevalent in the city as the fans were. I think that that many Philly fans, so excited and drinking so early didn't really bode well for their reputation. Regardless of that, or the fact we didn't get to see much of the parade, it was awesome to have the kids be part of it. Who knows the next time this will happen, and they can say they were there.

Then of course our Halloween festivities. The kids looked awesome, as usual. Courtney was a devil, and she was a beautiful one. Ryan finally settled on Jason Vorhees, he loves the scary stuff (especially scaring the pants off his sister). Christian was a dalmatian, and he was adorable. He carried that costume with him everywhere for the entire week. We did all the normal stuff, stopped by Aunt Junes and Uncle Craig's a few days prior, stopped over Great-Grandmom's, then came home and went trick-or-treating. All the kids enjoyed themselves and were surprisingly well behaved considering all the excitement. Aunt Chelsea came over with Autumn (or Baby Ow as Christian calls her), so that she could be with her cousins on her first Halloween. Lil Miss Autumn was a skunk (how appropriate), she was so cute I just wanted to squeeze her til her head popped off. haha. She was loving all the attention! After we were done begging the neighbors for junk food we came home to give out candy and play out front. Sandra, although she did come over my house, didn't celebrate with us, instead she fell fast asleep in my bed. She must have been pooped from working the parade all day to have missed out on Halloween (she's also a Halloween lover). Then after a few other visitors, Uncle Johnny, Aunt Sheri, and Mom-mom Karen, I got my little puppy into bed. Sounds like a long day for my older 2, but it didn't end there. At that point Scott took them over to Uncle Boo-boos house for a bit so that he could try to scare the crap out of them. They finally got to bed after hanging out there for a little bit. Those 2 were beat! In short... it was an awesome day!