a not so spooky halloween

Where we live trick or treating door to door with two young kids is not a great idea. we're in this random rural pocket where there are no sidewalks, the distance between houses can be pretty far, and the distance from the street to the door can be even farther. Thankfully our local mall does trick or treating, which we did last year and this year. it was especially helpful this year to have that option available because this is what caleb wanted to wear as his costume this year:

Flopping around in those fins in the cold and rain for hundreds of feet to get a piece of candy or two would have gotten old so so fast. in case you're wondering, that's a 'marine biologist' costume which is still what caleb considers himself to be and claims will be his actual job someday.  (his uncle works at the georgia aquarium and we plan to surprise him with a trip there in the spring!) next year he wants a great white shark costume. now that may be scary. 

noah's costume was definitely, frighteningly adorable:

I took full advantage of the fact that he really didn't get the whole costume idea and just picked up whatever i thought he'd look good in and whatever would be easy to get out of in a potty emergency! next year i am sure he will have a say. he certainly does about everything else. 

now, the next picture may actually be a little spooky. or even creepy.

this is caleb wearing the leggings and shirt he had on underneath all the snorkel gear, cuz it was october and trunks may have been a bit chilly. this is actually his maniacal laughter face he inherited from his father.  i could probably find a picture of seb with an almost identical expression.  to me he looks like he's about to put on his beret and head out to a slam poetry performance.

but before i go digging through photos and scanning them in i have to find out why my videos that were working are now not working again.  it can't be that hard! people far less intelligent than myself load videos all the time! what am i doing wrong? any tips?

at any rate, they had a good time, and as it turned out this was a warmer, dryer night for washington at the end of october, and after we worked most of the mall we even had energy in our legs and room in our bags for more candy, and walked around in aunt charlotte's nice, new, houses very close together and connected by sidewalks neighborhood. turns out to be a great way to meet your new neighbors! and yes, we still have most of our candy left!