Halloween and the day before

On October 30th, Hazel looked out my window and started jumping and screaming and rolling around crazily on the bed. What could provoke this frivolity? The first snow! Well, we did have two days in the last week or so when about 25 snowflakes fell, but that hardly counts. The lady from the welcoming committee dropped by with three loaves of bread and said that we'll be white for the next 5 months now.
Let's go play! She was very excited to try out her new Lightning McQueen snow shovel. I'd have taken pictures, but I was busy with my own snow shovel and our driveway. She was very helpful... for awhile...

Doesn't it look peaceful?

Okay, now add around 800 trick-or-treaters, their parents and the cars they came in. What amazing chaos! I had been warned to expect 300, so I bought candy for 400 and figured my sweet tooth would take care of the leftovers. Alas, 'twas not to be. They started arriving at 5:30, we ran out of candy at 7, and there were still a few stragglers ringing doorbells at 9:15! Hazel and I kept peeping out from our darkened windows to see when it all ended. Hazel thought that handing out candy at the door was the best thing ever. She'd watch from the window and start yelling when the next group was coming. After about 30 minutes, we just stood at the open door, as they were coming so quickly. She insisted on putting the candy in all the bags herself and had a non-stop commentary on their costumes.

Oops, back up... here she is on the previous day, posing with our two little carved pumpkins (the larger one is a plug-in). She was just playing dress-up; this is not her costume.

I thought this one looked a bit like the Cheshire cat.

Hazel told me exactly how she wanted them carved, and we'll be roasting pumpkin seeds tomorrow.And here is my little airplane pilot, courtesy of Amazon. She wore this outfit to the airport to pick up my folks in September and received a lot of smiles and compliments. Of course, it was snowing when we went out trick-or-treating, so all you could see tonight was the hat... and it very quickly got covered with snow. She said that I was wearing a snowflake costume, as I very quickly was covered with snow as well.

These little guys didn't mind the cold.