The long overdue Halloween post

Halloween was a fun event this year, especially due to the fact that Frankie was old enough to participate. She learned to say "trick or treat", and had a great time running up and down the street ("ready, set, go!") to visit all the neighbors. She wanted to "open!" every item that was handed to her, and whined all night long for "candy!".

We were expecting a larger turnout than we had, which was a little disappointing. It was odd, Melville St, which is one over from us, was insane. When Sarah and I got there with the girls, we had to wait in a 3-minute line to get to the door of our neighbor, Jack. It seemed odd that our street was relatively quiet. We were impressed, however, with the caliber of costumes that showed up at our door. I don't remember a single pseudo-costume in the crowd. We had many of these in Cambridge - some kid threw on a pair of aviators and put his hoodie up and suddenly he was the Unibomber. Gimme candy. Not in Dorchester. The kids were all dressed in proper costumes, were well supervised, and pleasantly polite and grateful when they came to the door. No one on our street got egged, no loads of candy wrappers the next morning, no smashed pumpkins; the night was festive, but not rowdy. Surprising after the somewhat rowdy 4th of July we experienced. I think we're going to enjoy Halloween in this neighborhood for years to come!

The kids got to wear their costumes twice, once last week for a costume party at the Whites, and again on Halloween night. Frankie was a fairy-princess ballerina:

Dex was a sheep (thanks, Aunt Becky and Howie!)

Even fairy-princess-ballerinas like to read books

Carving pumpkins (which Momma did most of - yuck, pumpkin innards)

"Open!"