Halloween

Hard to believe another Halloween has come and gone! This year was a really fun Halloween. The festivities started on Monday when we were invited to a pumpkin carving party over at the home of our friends' The Smiths. We all ate pizza and then carved pumpkins. Well, Matt and Joey did most of the carving. I was taking care of Simon most of the time, and Kristin was more interested in playing on the slide in the yard.
Kristin said she wanted "a happy pumpkin" this year, so here's what Daddy carved for her. It's pretty simple, compared to other pumpkins Matt has done in the past. (Remember when he took over 6 hours to carve The Sorting Hat? Sheesh!) But it was everything Kristin had hoped for.
This Halloween was also special because we got to trick-or-treat around our new neighborhood! It may not seem like that would be a big deal, but when we lived in our old apartment, we didn't really know (or trust) most of our neighbors - nor did we get very many trick-or-treaters at our door. So, our trick-or-treating was always limited to the few family and friends we'd go visit (by car, no less). But it's a whole new world in our new neighborhood. It was really great.

This year, Joey dressed as an astronaut and Kristin was a witch. Though you can't tell in this photo, Kristin was actually very excited about her costume. She just wasn't thrilled about having to stop trick-or-treating for photo taking.Simon's costume for this year was a lobster - but hated it. He was anxious to get out of it as soon as we'd put it on. But we got a photo or two before the wailing began.