Happy Hallowe'en!

So I am well aware that Hallowe'en has long since passed - decorations are down in exchange for Christmas ones (and not only at the stores), the candy stash has been raided and depleted, and people have posted many a blog about various subjects since their own Hallowe'en post. But we're a little behind in the blogging world at this house, so I'm just now getting to posting my Hallowe'en pics (or possibly not - Caleb is starting to fuss, Braylon is spilling juice and Isaiah is needing to poop on the potty as I type so I'm back and forth).

Anyhow, Hallowe'en was a busy day for us. We took all three boys to the Backyardigans concert at Centennial Hall in London in the early afternoon. They were glued to the show the entire first half, poised motionless on my lap, one boy on each knee, clutching Tyrone and Tasha tightly in their hands, with an almost hypnotic trance effect with the characters dancing and singing on stage. The second half was not quite the same, but only because I had to nurse Caleb at intermission so their focus was interrupted. Anyhow, they both enjoyed the show tremendously - it was amazing to feel the energy surge through their bodies when the show began with them on my lap! And it was somewhat nostalgic as well because my mom used to take us to concerts when we were young - Raffi and Fred Penner, so not quite the same colourful entertainment, but a concert nonetheless!

Here they are coming on stage:

And toward the end of the show (post-climax of the storyline):

And the boys watching intently on my lap:

Immediately afterwards, we began our trek of visiting family and friends to show off our boys! It is completely exhausting to travel from house to house, unloading for 10 minutes just to pack them back up in the car seats once again, but a lot of our family and friends look forward to seeing them. And we did make it home to trick or treat up and down our street quickly as well as hand out candy to the last of the ghosts and goblins.

Here are our three characters dressed up:

Isaiah was a tiger, roaring at the door with hands outspread beside his face (for some type of added ferocity, I suppose).

Braylon was a spider (and the bulkiness came to help when he kept tripping down the street trying to keep in pace with his excited older brother who caught on to trick-or-treating fairly quickly, and was in a race to ring the next doorbell).

Caleb was a giraffe, though few saw his costume as he was bundled in the car seat for much of the day.

And here are two of the four pumpkins we (or might I correct, Greg) carved for our porch (we used templates to stencil the image on before cutting it out - except for the one we carved Rebelo in). Thank goodness we carved them before the actual day, since our day was so busy. They turned out fantastic, I think, and I can't wait to see what the boys pick next year! The kids on our street were amazed at the "artist" and come Hallowe'en we saw lots more pumpkins at our neighbours' houses that had templates used to carve haunted houses, ghosts, cats, bats, etc.!

Hallowe'en evening Greg and I managed to get out as well. We were originally going to a stag and doe in town, but despite Hallowe'en being Greg's favourite holiday of the year, we didn't get a costume together for either of us. That and Greg didn't want to go in the end, but since we'd already babysitters lined up (thanks Dad & Carol), we went to a movie instead... our first night out since Caleb was born. We saw "Couples Retreat" - a good laugh! And that was our day. Looking forward to the next holiday - Christmas - which tends to span a month or two around here once we get all the gatherings in. And I'll hopefully get to blogging more about the growing boys and our daily adventures at some point... cross your fingers!