Last night was great! Other than a light layer of clothes under there costumes, there was no need for coats, hats, gloves, umberellas, etc. Which we all know that in Rochester these are usually necessary.

We packed the wagon with flashlights, bags, and I won't tell you what Sam put in there, but he did make sure that there was room for Libby. (it the little things like that that count i guess.... )

We went for our costumes about 2 months ago, sounds crazy right? Well if you have little girls who want to be "Hannah Montana" and "Gabriella" (High School Musical), then you know that if you don't get there early, they will be gone, because all the little girls want to be Hannah, or someone from High School Musical, and your girlies will be wearing a compilation of your leftover jr. high clothing mixed with a couple old dance costumes, and instead of Hannah's blonde wig, or Gabriella's Black one, you'll be looking for anything that you can hot glue together to resemble a wig, yarn, string, tape, spaghetti.....

So anyway Libby tried on Gabriella, it is simply a red dress, just like in the movie, very true to the original in fact (i know this because i have seen the movie 862 times) Unfortunately Libby looked a little bit like a slutty cocktail waitress in it, so i nixed that. On to Sharpay (also High School Musical for those of you without kids, nieces, neighbors, or grandkids) Now this looked alright , maybe a little show girlish, but with the wig it was alright. But you see when you are 5 (4 at the time) and you put on a costume you expect that when you look in the mirror that you will see Gabriella or Sharpay looking right back at you, Libby saw herself in a showgirl dress and a cheap wig, so onto the Disney Princesses........ Belle, Cinderella, Tinkerbell, who knew that the selection of a Halloween costume was so difficult. I mean, I had an idea, I showed them the catalog, went online, had them pre-pick........... anyway....... Libby ended up choosing a pink power ranger. She did not know what a power ranger was. But the costume had a mask. And she looked just like the picture on the package. SO there you have it.

Meanwhile Samantha wanted to be Hannah Montanta, super cute costume, but not for her. Honestly, I may be over-analyzing it, but I could not send my almost 11 year old out in a min min mini skirt, with a half shirt and a blonde wig. It was reministint of Julia ROberts in the begining of Pretty Woman. Now I have seen this costume on younger kids, and it's cute, super cute, but with Samantha getting older, I just couldn't let her. Well she was fine with it and immediatley chose another costume, a 1960's "Hippy Chick". Easy enough.

So off we went, Samantha wanted to run house to house, Libby is still limping pretty bad, and tires out easy, plus she can't do steps. But she had her big sister to help her out (with a minimal amount of grumbling)... So we muddled through, about 2/3 of the way Samantha fell and scraped up her arm pretty bad, and she was very upset and hurt, and Libby was pooped, but we made it, and upon arrival at home each girlie was allowed three pieces of candy........

Then, "fine one more, but no more then you are brushing your teeth."

Then ," you know what go ahead eat what you want, but don't cry to me when you have a belly ache. " A Mom can only take so much grumbling, crying, tiredness, and injuries.

We saw a lot of costumes out there. Princesses, Pirates, Cats, Giraffes, Pumpkins, and even the enegizer bunny. But i want to tell you about one special costume i saw......

One of Samantha's classmates is one of six kids, we ran into her, three of her sisters and her Mom & a friend .

This little girl was wearing a snugli with a couple babies shoved in it, there was a baby taped to her calf holding on for dear life, one in a stroller, one on her shoulder, and her friend was dressed up as another. She had on a blonde wig (mom is a blonde) and painted on spit up over her shoulder. She was dressed as her Mom. And I thought how funny, how original, but when I got home and thought about it, I thought it was beautiful. Any woman who can do that is my hero.

On a side note, she lost one of her babies on the halloween trail, luckily it ended up at my Mom's house so she will be recovered, her Mom has never done this, guess even the elaborate costume couldn't compare.

I "checked" the kids candy before they dove in. But I may have to "check" it again today. and tonight, and tomorrow..........