Many Hallow's Eve's

As many holidays go, Halloween was not a one-night affair.  We did manage to keep it to two this year as we skipped Boo at the Zoo and some other events.  On Thursday night we headed to South High School for their trick-or-treat off the street.  Ben was the most excited for the drum circle group.  He ran back and forth across the giant gym with a little more intention this year than when we went two years ago as he'd actually stop for candy this time.  Ben was done in less than an hour which was quite alright with Ryan and me.

he got several compliments on his Air Jordan's from the high school boys

We really could've just left him here for hours.  I was amazed at how he picked up the rhythm.

On Friday the fun started right away with a parade around the school followed by a classroom party.  Ben is doing much better with me joining him in the classroom this year but still begged to go home after one craft and some time at the snack table.  

The whole school parades around the whole school :), and parents surround to watch. 14% of the total school population was Elsa from frozen.

The sugar high began with a juice box. :(

We headed home for a little down-time before the next round of fun began.  I ordered the Papa Murphy's jack-o-lantern pizza early in the day and thank goodness because that place was so busy you would've thought they were handing out gold candy bars.  Tante and Nana joined us and we fueled up on pizza and salad before heading out to Gaylord St and all the fun it entails.  Ben hit several houses on the way up the street to the closed-off business district and almost every station once we got there.  The biggest success of the evening came when Tante, Nana and I thwarted the "scary guy" who has a home on Gaylord and sneaks up behind people trick-or-treating to scare them.  He even called us out for blowing his cover while he was trying to get someone else.  Next year WE will scare HIM!

We stopped at just a couple houses on our street and got to see Steve and Leslie's famous flaming pumpkin before Ben retreated to the basement for The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown.

We were out of candy shortly after 8:30 and Ryan and I weren't far behind Ben in saying goodnight to this Halloween.

Our little monkey through the years.  Monkey! Now there's an idea. :)