(The results of our Thursday carving party. Spooktacular.)

I talked to one of my friends this morning who told me she already had her Halloween decorations down. I smiled because mine are too. Of course it took me about 20 seconds, since it's only one little quilt and a throw pillow. I always dress the house for fall, but just can't get too excited about bats and spiders and all that.

Despite my reticence, we halloweened with the best of them. We went through the costume box a few weeks ago to see what we already had on hand. This year I only had to buy a whip and a tube of green face paint. Not bad.

Caleb went as Indiana Jones. Very cool. My favorite part was make-uping the scruff and the chest hair. And catching him pulling his hat down and to give himself suave looks in the mirror. Seriously good fun.

A few weeks ago Olivia told me she wanted to go as something "unexpected," like a storm trooper. I told her that would definitely be unexpected. [She confided that she wanted "to keep her friends on their toes." (her words)] A day or so after that I had a dream that she went as a boxer with this darling black eye, and I tried to talk her into that, but she was only aghast at this suggestion. I reminded her of her wish to be unexpected. She said, "Not that unexpected." She ended up going as Laura Ingalls Wilder, which is not at all unexpected, but is so Olivia.

Savannah was the only one of them to dress "spooky." She was a bit hesitant about the green face paint, but once I got going, she completely embraced her wicked-witchiness. The girls dressed their dolls for the holiday as well, and even went so far as to fill their little buckets with a few pieces of candy when they weren't looking. Charmed, I'm sure.

Ethan vacsillated between all the super heroes, but finally settled on Batman. He has the other ones scheduled out in his Halloween plans until 2013. This year David and I had few panicky moments where we lost our fearless bat during trick-or-treating. He was moving so fast between houses we could hardly keep up.

Love you, darlings.

My favorite part of Halloween night is always our neighborhood party. From here it was off through the neighborhood to trick-or-treat. And eventually wind our way back home.

Boo til next year.