Emily and Jane and the Not-So-Deathly Hallows

Halloween with small children is quite a production. To them, it takes second place only to Christmas. Halloween is holds a special place in the hearts of the young for one reason: the currency of the day is candy, candy and more candy. Oh, and they get to dress up. But that's just a sidenote to the candy.

Another highlight of Halloween has to do with scooping the guts out of giant squashes and carving pictures into them.

Daddy and Jane did the angry bird, Mom and Emily did the other two.

This was Emily's first school Halloween party since she was sick last year on party day. I, being the optimist that I am, volunteered to bring cupcakes. I once again have confused my love for baking with a love of decorating baked goods. They're not the same thing, believe me. Nonetheless, we ended up with a couple dozen batlike creatures.

 I was fairly pleased until that evening when their wafer wings began soaking up moisture and breaking. Thanks to Chris making an early morning run to the grocery store, the bats' wings were replaced with smaller, chocolate coated cookies. They kind of ended up looking like goats with fangs or dogs with horns, but the kids were happy. 5 year olds are pretty easy to please when you're talking cupcakes. 

School parties are pretty good fun.

Jane was lucky enough to be an underage participant.

Forget pumpkins and parties, this holiday is all about the candy. Our girls are hardcore trick-or-treaters. None of that pansy trunk-or-treat business for them. They stayed out nearly two and a half hours, trading parental supervision from Mom to Dad halfway through. We didn't get any pictures of them demanding candy, but here is Jane with her haul, chanting, "I want to eat it... I want to eat it..."