HALLOWEEEEEEEEN!

after all of the build-up, it was finally time to get dressed up and go trick 'r treating!

this is a series of photos showing beatrix marie slowly turn in to a psychopath as we make her wait until we've taken enough pictures before she can go out and get candy. i hope you enjoy them as much as i enjoyed forcing them to happen:

this last one is the easy favorite.

the costumes, for those of you not up on kiddie television programming and marketing, are Dora the Explora and her monkey side-kick boots. the monkey. sidekick.

we really weren't sure how eloise was going to do. she had been coached tirelessly by her big sister to say "trick or treat!" followed by "Happy Halloween!" but we still didn't know if she'd actually do it or fall to the background.

well, it turns out eloise was made for this shit. by house number three she was turning on her little heels just as soon as the treat plunked into her pail and announcing to anyone within ear shot "neeeeeeeext HOUSE!" it was utterly, COMPLETELY, ridiculous. just ridiculous.

 as the night wore on, it got darker and colder. bebe's halloween mantra became "i love halloween! i wish it could go on forever!" boots issued forth a hearty "me too!"

after a while the cold and dark started to wear on our little explora and her monkey.

yep. that's about how we finished the night. after what felt like weeks, we made it back to the car to find that we had been out walking less than an hour.

tricked, treated, and ready for home!

then it was time to see what we, i mean the girls, got.

i know that there are endless jokes about parents stealing the candy their little ones collect, but in our house, with bebe's severe nut allergies, it's no joke. we take that shit, for real. ALLLLLLLL THE REESE'S PEANUT BUTTER CUPS, BABY! and there were a lot. i'm getting fatter just typing this.

and then, just like that, halloween was in fact over. no amount of wishing could keep it going. we bid farewell to the commercial start of the fall season and prepared ourselves for the onslaught of x-mas materials that would be thrown our way. but as we closed the door on the last night in october, we left our last two lanterns lit as goofy reminders of the fun of the past 13 days! 

Happy Halloween!