Halloween, 2012

I figure there might not be many years left that I can choose the kids' costumes or plan for themes.  But on the other hand, they aren't big fans of hats or accessories, so we needed something simple.   And one day, as Caroline was bossing her brothers around, it hit me.

The Peanuts Gang!  

She is a perfect little Lucy Van Pelt, and with their 90th percentile head circumferences, the boys would make an excellent Charlie Brown and Linus!

I found Daniel's shirt and Caroline's dress on Etsy.

Max's shirt was "hand drawn" to give it the real Linus look, and we pinned his blankie to him.

We set out for Trick or Treating about 5:30, the whole pack of us - Lucy, Linus, Charlie, Mommy, Daddy, Grandma, Boppy, and Auntie Lee Ann.  Uncle Kelly offered to come too, but he thought perhaps six adults for three kids might overwhelm the neighborhood.  

The personalized goody bags are courtesy of Boppy

At the first house, they were a little unclear on the concept.  We were the first trick or treaters and as our neighbor opened the door, his dog came bounding out, much to Caroline's delight.  While the dog was wrestled back into the other room, Max and Daniel walked themselves right into the living room as if we were over for a visit (on a side note, I was impressed how clean the house was - luckily nobody barged into OUR place!).  It took a little while, but eventually we got them bundled back out the door and down the stairs.

At the second house they had figured out how to each take a piece of candy (or more), and as we moved on across the street and down the block they started developing their own little patterns.  Max and Caroline each regularly grabbed a handful of candy and smiled.  Caroline sometimes followed this up with something that sounded like, "Happy Hoween!" or "Happy Day!"  Daniel was more often found poring over the candy bowl to find the one piece he wanted to take and he was the only one to remember to say, "thank you" at almost every house.  He has gotten incredibly good at saying "thank you".

I call this "Robert DeNiro plays Linus"

We stuck to just our block, about eight houses total, but considering there were stairs at all but one of them, and that the kids insist on walking up the stairs themselves (and Caroline insists on walking down without help most of the time), they were suitably tired out by the time we made it back to our house.

Caroline's already digging into the candy

They weren't sure about the scary ghost at this house

When we got home, Caroline plopped herself down on the floor and started pulling candy out piece by piece, handing it to me and saying, "Opee?" She's a big fan of chocolate, it seems.

The rest of the night was spent hoping the doorbell didn't ring and send them hysterically clambering to open the door and grab the candy we offered our visitors.  At seven, we gave them a bath and just as I got them into the tub, I heard rain start to thunder down on the roof outside the bathroom window.

Good thing we went out early!

Here's a video Auntie Lee Ann got as we approached the second house: