Eric playing Rock Band in his pajamas

(The drums weren't plugged in, but we didn't tell him that.)

Halloween (extended remix)

I was (mildly) berated last year for not making sure the first photos I posted after Halloween were actually of the kids on Halloween. Last year, I at least had the Ludditely excuse of still using a 35mm camera and thus having to wait for the roll of film to be finished and developed. This year, however, my birthday present was a digital camera, so I knew I was out of excuses.

Eric this year dressed as Thomas the Tank Engine, while Faith chose Wonder Woman. (I say she chose Wonder Woman; in actuality, she first grabbed at the Supergirl costume, but as Supergirl is a useless simpering superhero whereas Wonder Woman is obviously the pinnacle of superheroinity, I quickly grabbed the Wonder Woman package and said, "Look! Wonder Woman! Wouldn't you rather be Wonder Woman?") Of course, she had never actually heard of Wonder Woman so we went home and watched some old Lynda Carter episodes on DVD, which convinced her entirely that she had made the right choice.

In general, our church carnival is held on Halloween night, but as Halloween was on Saturday this year, they moved the carnival to Friday so as to have more time to clean up before Sunday morning. The result was a preternatually extended celebration that just about wore me out. It began with the Friday night carnival, of which the high point was the return of the 15-foot-tall inflatable slide that Faith had spent all night climbing two years prior. It was the favorite of both Faith and Eric, despite the fact that it was a chilly night that they spent most of standing in line on the pavement in their socks. (Eric at least had on long sleeves and pants under his Thomas outfit.)

The following day -- Halloween itself -- my parents' church had a carnival in the afternoon. It was a smaller affair but also had an inflatable slide. Then, finally, on Halloween night we took the kids trick-or-treating around the neighborhood for the first time. They ended up with over THREE POUNDS of candy -- each! Before we got back to our house, they had Tommy and I carrying their plastic pumpkins because they were "too heavy."

Tommy enjoyed the trick-or-treating the most of all our "Halloween weekend" activities, and I don't know what we'll do when the church carnival goes back to being on Halloween itself, as we won't be able to do both. But this picture of Eric after Halloween describes my mood when we finally wrapped up all the festivities: Halloweened out!