Hallween 2017: Happy, But Not Quite the Same

Our Halloween was a little different this year, mostly because Ben (formerly our most enthusiastic celebrator of Halloween) decided he was too old (or too tall) to trick or treat.

Still, we all carved our pumpkins last night--with Ben and Janae doing all their own cutting this year.

Janae's, Ben's, Alaina's, Eric's

We took advantage of the beautiful, sunny and DRY day to make one last visit to the pumpkin patch,

Feeding the chickens

Feeding the sheep

Petting the cat--we thought he looked just like Grandma's kitty, Peeta

Picking one last pumpkin

then came home and made our traditional mummy hotdogs and skeleton veggies and dip.

After that, we made our usual first stop at Grandma and Grandpa's house (where we left Ben to watch a movie),

then came home to trick or treat.  Janae made her own Legolas costume (character from Lord of the Rings), Alaina dressed up as Ginny Weasley (from Harry Potter), and Eric agreed to wear his firefighter costume (although in his heart he was a knight).  

I realized later that both girls were characters from novels they love, which made me feel extremely proud!

 I really love trick or treating in our neighborhood.  There is not much traffic, so the streets are quiet and safe.  The neighbors are really friendly and welcoming, too.

At one of the houses, the neighbor takes pictures of the kids in their costumes each year, then has them posted to a board the following Halloween for them to pick up.

Our picture from last year--with Ben!  Notice Janae is holding the picture from the previous year.

Eric was entertaining, as usual.  At one door, when a woman answered with, "Hello," Eric said, "Bonjour!"

At another house, the person was giving out bags of chocolate chip cookies.  Eric enthusiastically said, "I LOVE cookies!" then told her that he needed to go to the potty.  The girls were mortified.  Of course we hurried home, then went back out for a bit longer.

Eric quickly became tired and said he was finished with trick or treating, so I came home with him to sort out the treats and watch a Halloween show (Word World Halloween Fun).

The girls stayed out with Jason for about another hour and a half, whch showed in the HUGE amounts of treats they brought home.

Yes, Ben was a little jealous when Grandpa brought him back . . . especially since we had so many trick or treaters that we ran out of candy!  I'm guessing the girls have enough to share, though. . . .

Overall, a very pleasant Halloween . . . but not quite the same without Ben.  Maybe we can get him back on board next year :)