Halloween

I know that Halloween is a controversial topic for Christians and I understand, but my family's point of view is that we aren't celebrating "the dead" we are just dressing up and getting candy and enjoying good fellowship with our Christian family.  So we did just that.  I must warn you that I have lots of pictures.  Because of the day that Halloween fell on this year we ended up having trick-or-treating for 3 nights in a row.  So lots of candy and lots pictures were a result.

 This is my nephew, "Yoda."

 My oldest niece was a "Fairy Queen."  But Mr. G enjoyed "accidentally" calling her "Dairy Queen" most of the time.  And my other niece was an Angel.  Unfortunately, Baby G didn't get much of nap all day and finally fell asleep right before it was time to go trick-or-treating.

 And he looked so peaceful asleep in his crib....but I couldn't let him miss out on his first Halloween....so I was a bad parent and woke him up.  But he was a champ about it.

 Here's the gang all ready to get as much candy as possible.

 This was the first house we stopped at for candy.  The baby in my arms is Baby G and the weird look on my face is your imagination.

 Here we are walking the neighborhood.  We ended up having a good turn out and good weather...but by the time we were done Baby G was so tired that...

 He actually fell asleep while I was in the process of taking his punkin costume off of him.  Poor guy.  And if he only knew that he was going to have to do it all again the next night.  The next night we had trunk-or-treating at our church.  It was our best turn-out yet with a ton of neat characters showing up from our church family.

 I believe this is sleeping beauty...with a purple coat on.

 Minnie Mouse with her mommy.

 Army guy with mean scary green teeth.

 Oh...and you might recognize these characters.  Baby G with his Nana and Gampa.

I'm not sure if they were farmers, cowboys, or ranchers...I'm not sure if they knew either...but the belt buckle was awesome.

 We had a pirate...but this poor pirate was a little cold and ended up in his street clothes before the night was over.

 I think she is a farmer....but when I told her to say cheese she covered her eyes and said, "Cheeeeezzz."

 So then I had to take another picture without her knowing it to see her beautiful face.

 And here is her twin sister showing me her candy bucket.  I was lucky to get this picture because she wanted nothing to do with my camera.

 And here are a couple of members of our church.  The one on the right is an elder....and yes....he's wearing Long Johns.

 We had lots of good fellowship and really good food.

 And before the night was over Thomas the Train showed up.

 And his little sister...I think she is a princess.

 Then it was time for the trunk-or-treating.  We decided not to decorate our trunk much this year, but just throw a bunch of balloons in the back.  It turned out to be a hit.

 All my nephew wanted was a balloon.

 And he got it.  I wish I could've gotten a picture of his face a few minutes later when the balloon landed on a rock on the ground and popped.  Poor guy was devastated, but he was given another balloon that lasted about ten minutes before it popped as well.  I didn't tell anyone that the balloons only cost me a buck fifty.  Unfortunately, we ended up with a lot of popped balloon pieces all over the ground by the time the night was over.

 We had lots of kids lined up to grab their candy and a balloon.

 And everyone took pictures.....Long Johns & all.

 Here are some of the little girls from our church digging in for candy and my sweet angel niece in the background waiting her turn.

 Here's our other niece trying to find her favorite candy.

 We had a lot to choose from.

 Aw....and a little bunny came too holding her carrot.  She was absolutely adorable....and I think her grandpa is already doing a little matchmaking with her and Baby G.

 Mmmmm....I can't see anything in this picture.  Everything is camouflage.

 Here's one of our older kids dressed as a nerd.  He played the part well.

We ended with getting the whole group together for one final picture.  It was such a fun night that I am already looking forward to next year.  Okay...here's your test....Can you find Baby G?