We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming of back-posting ...

... to bring you Halloween.   This post comes to you with great effort as I awake from a sugar-induced coma to sift through pictures:

Ward Trunk or Treat stash:  organizing the candy ... it comes instinctively to every child.

Briton is crocheting his costume.

A lollipop bouquet por ti. 

How'd this sneak in here?  Wull ... amidst the Halloween parties during the week, Clara's first tooth fell out.  One tooth saved from decay.  She was soooo funny about her tooth.  First of all, she wouldn't let us wiggle it.   It was probably loose for weeks before she decided to let us in on her secret.  She was torn between wanting us to know, but not wanting us to pay her any mind.  If we tried to look, she'd clasp both hands over her mouth and protest. 

Then, it fell out at school.  She came home saying coy things in a sing-song voice, like, "Mom, I don't have my tooth in my backpack."  Which is code for: "my tooth's in my backpack, I want you to know, but don't you dare try and look at it or the hole it left behind.  And DON'T talk about it."

Briton cajoled a photo by insisting the grandparents would want to see the gap.  As you can see, she really is proud about it.

In the morning, she refused to look under her pillow to see if the tooth fairy came.

Class parties.  Clara as Anna.

Miles and I went down the hall to Sydney's class party, next.  Sydney and Miles are wearing costumes from year's past.  Multiple wears=bonus!. The Dinosaur (c. 2009) has gotten a lot of mileage.  Almost as much as The Helmet of Salvation.

The second graders had popcorn and oranges.

The kinders had candy corn bingo, little debbie snacks, candy party favor baggies....

Halloween hadn't even arrived and, what with class parties and trunk or treat ... I was already getting sick of the sugar.

And I can hold my own with sugar ... believe you, me.

Someone has to do it.

"Hey, stop watching football and pretend you've been working hard de-gutting a pumpkin."

The costume box was disemboweled all week (er ... and still is ...)

Clara and Miles are playing Library.  Miles is the librarian, swiping Clara's lego library card.

Advanced Maternal Age.
Also,
what is Miles thinking?
  "Are you  my mother?", ... is my guess

The zombie mama also looks a little hung over.  Could also be the sugar-coma-thing.

The Claaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw.
(and the toooooooooooooooooonsils).

Briton spearheaded the jack-o-lantern carving.  A sampling.
The albino one is from our garden.

The costumes that made the cut for Halloween night.

The Octopi, Snickers, and the Dino Man.

 Syd was Snickers a couple years ago.  She wanted to be it again and what we learned is that in two years she had grown a C and I's-worth.  We patched up the hole in those letters and cut a new one into the "N".  So if you ever want to mark your kid's growth over time, making a Snickers bar costume is one way to do it.

Note:  Clara's cute, little kitty cat tongue.
Sydney's enduring expression.  The stuffing in that thing was difficult to manage.

But kids will go through a lot to reap the rewards of candy.

Even eating their minestrone soup, packed with veggies.

(served up because I console myself that mushy carrots and zucchini will somehow recompense/offset the damage of all the sugar our kids will ingest.  Ah, the lies we tell ourselves.).

Also note ... check out what people hand out these days.  Full-sized candy bars.   Love how Miles has them lined up, ready to go.   Oh, man.   Eat another bowl of soup, kid.