Monday, November 1, 2010

Smooky Halloween!

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Yesterday we had an incredible, full, and very exciting Halloween. Paprika refers to Halloween as "Smooky Halloween"- like Spooky Halloween, but with an M instead. I think it's pretty cute, so that's what we call Halloween now!

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Halloween in our neighborhood is HUGE! The police block off our block so no cars can come through, and over a thousand kids come trick or treating. Our next door neighbor counted her pieces of candy (she gave out one to each child). She said that she went through 1700 pieces of candy! That sounds about right to me. It was insane!

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People on our block do cook-outs for the whole community on Halloween night. One neighbor made over 400 pulled pork sandwiches. Another neighbor does meatballs. One serves wine. It was a real party.

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As for us? Yesterday I decorated our whole house on the outside, complete with orange and black lights, enormous cobwebs, spiders, and pumpkins. It was very festive! I managed to get it all accomplished while Ginger was taking her nap! I was mooooving. I knew I had to get it done, because we were the only house without lots of Halloween decorations!

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I let the girls run and play in their costumes and took some pictures, since I knew once it get dark it would be much harder to take pictures.

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We went to the block party at 5pm, then headed out to trick or treat at 6pm. Paprika was soooo excited- we were out trick or treating for almost 3 hours. We left a bowl of candy on our doorstep, and we kept stopping back to re-fill it every half hour or so. At one point, someone took the WHOLE bowl of candy and we ran out, but thankfully Mr. Mustard was able to slip off to Target really quickly and buy some more so we could pass out candy when we got home. (And he bought the good stuff - lots of chocolate!!!)

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I was worried Mr. Mustard wouldn't get to come celebrate with us...but he managed to slip out of DWTS for a few hours to trick or treat with us and pass out candy. It was perfect!

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Paprika stayed up until almost midnight. We had trick or treaters until after 10pm, and then she wanted to say up just in case anyone else came to the door! When we came home to pass out candy after trick-or-treating, Paprika wanted to give all of her candy (that she had just gotten trick-or-treating) to all the kids who came to our door. We convinced her that we had more than enough candy to give out, and that she could keep her hard-earned candy for herself!

Ginger was dazzled by the lights and the commotion, and it wiped her out! She went to bed to bed at a very reasonable 9pm!

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We got to chat with all of our neighbors while we hung out on our front porch passing out candy. It was really so amazing. When we moved in, our neighbors told us that Halloween on our block is special. And oh, was it ever!

It sounds weird to say it was a magical Halloween. But it really really was!

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10 comments:

Lauren said...

That sounds like so much fun!! I love it when neighborhoods come together to celebrate a holiday. I'm sure the girls will remember this Smooky Halloween for years to come!

Farmgirl Paints said...

sounds like a major event...wow! we leave candy in a BIG bowl too, but it lasts 1 1/2:)

Mama L. said...

Wow! Your neighborhood sounds super fun. I wish we lived in a neighborhood like that! I love where we live but it's a very established, older part of town. I'd say we're the youngest couple by about 40 years!
Anyway....glad you guys had a fabulous Halloween and the girls looked simply adorable.

Stephanie said...

That sounds fun! Our neighborhood goes pretty crazy too, we probably had about 100 trick or treaters. On another note Josie (same age as Paprika) says Smooky too! I pu tout a Halloween placemat and she said ohhh that's smooky! LOL

Devon said...

i love it - thats awesome!!

but why oh why, do we have no pics of your house decorating??

LOVE the costumes....

ferfischer said...

1700 pieces of candy??? That's nuts man! But it does sound fun. We get NO trick or treaters. Literally! We just live in a strange corner of the neighborhood. Oh well! Love the costumes!

Erin said...

Your girls look beautiful Erika! Glad you had a happy holiday!

FourJedis said...

Now that's the way to celebrate Halloween! I think if more communities did what yours did, I would be much more into it!

brandy said...

You neighborhood sounds awesome! 1700 pieces of candy? That's honestly insane! By the way, my daughter has that same ladybug outfit! So cute!

Sheila said...

And I thought I went to the Magic Kingdom for Halloween. Yours sounds like so much fun. Glad you have a good neighborhood and good neighbors to enjoy the magic with.
You will love looking back at all the kids and their costume choices years from now. I hope you took plenty of pictures and didn't forget to take pictures of the grownups in action and of the preparations. Looking back, those are some of the funniest photos.