Halloween 2016

One find morning, Jackie reading to Ben.  She reads to him a lot.  Hilly, less so because she has less patience for Jack sounding out difficult words.  Also, Hilly is a big memorizer of books.  So while Jack is sounding out words, Hilly will chime in with the correct word (because she has the entire book memorized) and this infuriates Jack.

Happy Birthday to Pops!  This pic below might just be the best one ever.

Halloween morning, Hillary decides that of all her plentiful costumes, she wants to wear her everyday ballet practice leotard and her cat ears (which she also wears every day).  I begged her to at least dress it up a bit. 

It's tough to see her, but I got her to wear Jackie/s ballet elf costume from her xmas recital last year. I didn't even TRY to get her to wear her batgirl costume.  That was so 2 weeks ago.

Below, Benny's first parade.  He is Spider-Man and Drew is a Power Ranger.

We played for an hour or so at Abby and Sam/s and then hit up Jackie/s parade at 1:00, where she was batgirl.  She was so happy.  Grammy and Pops were at both parades, which was very exciting for the kids.  I am actually very excited to be a grandmother.

Jackie completing her homework.

Later that night.  The crew, all gussied up.

We went to a Halloween party up the street and then trick-or-treated around the neighborhood.

Me and my friend Tiff.  Those Walgreen/s masks sure are worth their $6.99!

After trick or treating.  They just gorged themselves.  Jackie picked as many Twix bars from the baskets as she could- JUST FOR ME!!  True love, folks.  She was so excited to show me all of them.  We also went to a haunted house.  Payton started crying but Jackie ran up and hugged the monster.  Turns out it was a teacher from her school!  The monster turned to me mid-hug and said "She is a very sweet girl."  It is SOOOOOO NICE to hear that.  Because usually kids aren't so sweet at their own homes.  Outside reports confirming good behavior make me so happy. 

Late Late that night.  Our 3 furried friends.

Lou wasn't having it.

Nov 1- All Saints Day.  Nary a break and here we are, dressing up yet again.  St Cecelia.  I tried to get her to be Mother Theresa, Mary, St. Francis (my personal fave)- but she wouldn't hear of it.  St. Cecelia it was.  Patroness of music.  Jack would not carry an instrument, despite my pleas.

Em and Hills on Wednesday? Not sure when this was taken.  Hilly was a grump though.  Oh, the morning after trick or treating.  Emily was trying to cheer her up.

An out of order pic!  Me and my little superhero. 

Ben wore his costume for a few days straight. Slept in it and everything.

Jack at ballet on Tues night.

Library on Wed after school.  We stayed for HOURS.  The kids just read books and played with puzzles etc.. 

Hillary went a little nuts searching for books...

The kiddos.

These 2 playing with that book "You Choose" as usual.