All Hallows Eve

This year, the festivities began with the much-anticipated Halloween Costume Parade. Ellie and her friend, Abby, have been planning this event for months. They worked out exactly how they wanted it, and all Abby's mom and I had to do was facilitate their wishes. The general idea was to have Ellie and Abby leading a parade carrying Halloween banners. To commence the parade, two kids (specifically Nico and Grace), in bathing suits so they did not get wet, were to drop mentos into diet coke setting off a grand entrance for Ellie and Abby. Nico and Grace were to then throw candy to the crowds as the parade passed by.

We had to make a few changes. Abby's mom and I ended up dropping the mentos in the diet coke, which worked surprisingly well, and we decided against swimsuits. The entrance was great! (Although a bit more involved, you can get the general idea here). Ellie and Abby came in carrying their banners and leading a host of neighborhood kids down the block for a grand parade. The candy throwing, however, got a bit out of hand as the kids lobbed the candy as hard as they could at the spectators. Luckily no one was injured. All in all it was a great parade.... Great job Ellie!!! Alas, I have no pictures to show for it since I was manning the diet coke. If any of you (ahem, Mom and Monica) have any pictures to donate for the cause, I'd love to post them.


As for the important business of trick-or-treating, we struck out early to avoid rain, and therefore went in daylight. The dark of night seems more appropriate, but it was fun all the same. We ventured to the neighbors and up and down the block a bit. Nico made an excellent, and very serious knight. His main criteria for a costume this year, was involvement of a sword. Ellie was a sassy black cat, and the cutest one around. Alex and I were re-runs from years past, and Granddad Anderson was the spooky ghost. It was a great trick-or treating party.

The kids got more than enough candy (I'm hoping they completely forget it exists!), you can see the evidence in their "line-ups", a Halloween tradition past down from the Hart faction.















Halloween - what a great holiday!