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| Anna & Friends at Trunk or Treat |
It is time for the second largest kid holiday of the year: Halloween. It is definitely one of Anna's favorites as it includes some of her favorite things: hanging out with her friends in costumes and candy (throw in some presents and it would be perfect). This year was no exception and the weather was perfect for outdoor events.
The Halloween kick-off in Vienna, Virginia usually is the Wednesday before the holiday with the annual parade. This is normally a two hour event and includes every community group, politician, band, and costumed kid in town. It is a lot of fun and is the place to be. For the first time in parade history, it was postponed due to thunderstorms on Wednesday. This meant that Thursday night we went to the much smaller parade - 40 minutes, not one band, a handful of politicians, and half the amount of costumed kids. It was still fun, but not the same (really - how can you have a parade without ONE band???)
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| Sofia, Anna & Ellie waiting for hay ride at Cox Farms |
Anna kicked off a long Halloween weekend with no school on Friday which meant a trip to Cox farms for the fall festival, along with several of her friends. This is an annual event that includes lots of large slides, rope swings, apple cider, music, hay rides, a corn maze - really just a great day out. The weather was perfect, the crowds were smaller, and the girls had a blast running from slide to slide.
Friday afternoon was pumpkin carving time. Anna challenged her Dad to a pumpkin carving contest with Theresa as the judge. The challenge was on and both were careful to not let the other see what they designed. In the end, after careful consideration (and the realization that Anna was likely going to take care of her when she is old), Theresa judged Anna the winner while Dad received an award for overall craftsman ship.
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| Pumpkin Carving with Dad |
The grand finale of Friday was the annual "trunk or treat" at the school parking lot. If you ever wanted to get a lot of candy in a very short amount of time, this is the place to be. Everyone rolls into the parking lot by 6:15, decorates their car, eats pizza and promptly at 6:30 the trunking begins. There are some very elaborately decorated cars and family themes. This year, Anna sported her pizza costume, Theresa wore her clown costume, and Joe wore his suburban Dad costume. Theresa became the "conscience clown" after watching the car next to her with a bowl of unattended candy and a sign that read "take 1 piece." It was apparent that either kids could not read or thought the sign did not apply to them as the grabbed fist fulls of candy (there is probably some sort of sociology study on this). After making several kids put back lots of candy, Theresa took over the bowl to enforce the one piece rule. After making the rounds, Anna came back with a large bag full of candy. No parents had any candy left. It was quite an event.
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| Getting ready for Trunk or Treat |
Saturday was Halloween and Anna decided she wanted to go trick-or-treating with her friend Sofia this year in her neighborhood. Theresa joined in and saw the appeal of Sofia's neighborhood. While the houses were on larger lots than Anna's neighborhood, they were definitely decorated for Halloween (one house had spooky organ music blaring through the woods) and several were giving out full size candy bars. Anna wore her pizza costume while Sofia was dressed as bazooka bubble gum. They had a blast and were counting their loot later. Theresa asked Anna to sort out the candy she did not want so Theresa could take it to the office. The result: tootsie rolls, jolly ranchers, and twizzlers for the office. Apparently the chocolate stays. In the meantime, Joe manned the neighborhood trick-or-treating. The crowds were big and there was little candy left.
It was a fun weekend with great trick-or-treat weather. A big thanks to Grandma for making the pizza costume!
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| Anna & Sofia ready to trick-or-treat |
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