The whole fan-dam-ily

After days and weeks of pre-Halloween activities, all of the warm-up and planning finally came to a head on Saturday night. The gang included a witch, an escaped convict, a gray cat, and Commander Cody from Star Wars. Mom and Dad were there, although they could not be convinced to wear costumes; and Elizabeth was there, although she didn't stay for the good part (trick-or-treating).

The walk streets were a lively scene as usual and Zach was immediately swept up in the whole routine. "Truck or treat!" he would say gleefully at each house. (Best comment from one guy when he saw Dave walking Zach up to the door: "Nice costume, little guy. And it's great to see that your dad got out for the weekend.") Luke was a little worn out from a busy day of soccer, but he held out long enough to get a bucket full of candy and watch the guillotine reenactment outside one of the houses.

When we finally got home from trick-or-treating, Zach was buzzing around the house, and refused to settle in bed until he could get his hands on one more piece of candy. He finally fell asleep with his little fist curled around a Tootsie Roll. No big deal, I figured. I can just take it out of his hands once he's asleep. So when I heard him snoring I went to grab the candy, and - BAM! - his other arm popped up and slapped me away. (And the snoring continued). I had to wait another hour until he was in a much deeper sleep to finally pry the candy out of his hand.

Also, I'm experiencing something with Zach that I never once had with Luke: Zach wants to wear his costume again and again. (I don't think it ever even occurred to Luke to wear his costumes once Halloween was over). So the cat costume is a little worse for wear; I'm going to have to figure out how to wash it while keeping the feather-boa tail and ears intact.

Two quick Luke things: First, I was asking him about some of the other kids in his class. He volunteered that he likes a girl named Hiyasmin. "Oh yeah, she's a nice girl," I said. And Luke replied, "And she looks good too!"

Also, Luke has been learning about bats at school. The other night we drove by a donut shop with a big sign out in front that said, "Open All Night." Luke looked at the sign, then announced, "Those people who work at the donut shop? They must be nocturnal."