Christmas? Easter? St. Patrick's Day? HALLOWEEN!!!

What a blast of a day!!!

The festivities started at school, with a beautiful walk, followed by the boys being welcomed with huge smiles and lots of enthusiasm from their teachers (same as every other school day!).

Then it was off to a little parade and musical/ dance show.

Aidan and Liam are not sucking their finger, they are singing and acting out a song about brushing teeth.  Appropriate song for Halloween :-).

There is no way their teachers could give them more love and attention.

After school the boys went to visit their Auntie Kate to drop off a few treats (candy canes, gold coins and jelly beans!).  Surprisingly (not really!), Auntie Kate had even more treats for the boys (and me!).  Auntie Kate is the best!!! 

Then we went home for a little rest before round 2 of the craziness. 

When the boys woke from their naps, they found a special Halloween package from Auntie Angie.  In it were all sorts of goodies, but of it all, Aidan was beyond himself excited that she picked out a counting book just for him.  The other boys like their books as well, but to be honest, they were more interested in the candy apples that were included :-). 

Not long after snacks Daddy came home from work, so trick-or-treating, here we come!  Oh my was it fun.  The boys stayed in character the 2+ hours we were out trick-or-treating, wishing all a Merry Christmas, Happy Easter, and Happy Saint Patrick's Day.  All three were precious and very entertaining...  Connor with his inquisitive and funny personality, Liam with his huge smile and very loud "Thank You!" every time someone gave him candy, and Aidan with his excitement about his pot of gold (Every time someone gave him and his brothers extra candy, Aidan would give the candy distributor chocolate coins.  He also made sure to give extra coins to his friends' parents, so they would have some when they got back from trick-or-treating.  When people wanted to give the chocolate coins back, Aidan explained that leprechauns like to give their gold away.).  Aidan was also crazy social and the leader of the pack the entire night, which was so much fun to see.  With all three on their entertaining A-game, a common response after stopping at a house was "Your kids made my day", and I can see why because Craig and I were laughing the entire 2+ hours we were out trick-or-treating! 

First house of the night (at the time little did I know that we would still be going strong 2 hours later!)

The only candy bowl that the boys were a bit hesitant of, since it had a witch's hand in the middle of it that moved every time they went to take a piece of candy.  We were at this house a long time! 

I understand Trick-or-Treating is a skill that must be taught, but I didn't think we would have to teach the boys to not go INSIDE a house when someone opened the door...  oops!

For some reason the boys stayed in this order the entire night.  Our Leprechaun was the first to arrive at each door, followed by Santa Claus, with the Easter Bunny trailing behind.  No matter the order, though, all three got more than their fair share of candy!!!

We know you're in there!!!

We did have one minor discipline issue when we were trick-or-treating (Liam purposely rang the doorbell twice after he was reminded to only ring it once).  Because of this, he had to skip the doorbell house while trick-or-treating.  I mention this because what happened next was just beautiful (and totally typical of Connor).  After getting the candy from the house Liam had to skip, Connor walked over and said "Here Liam.  I got you two pieces of candy because I love you sooo much.".  Am I one lucky mom or what?!?

Since this is probably the last year I am going to be able to get away with picking out "themed costumes", I'm so glad we went all-out this year.  All three couldn't have loved their costumes more and I think they looked precious in them, although the pictures don't do the costumes justice.  With Aidan's tilt of the Leprechaun hat and now infamous pot of gold, Connor's little 3 year-old body in a larger than life Santa suit and Liam's Easter Bunny waddle were all truly priceless and are hopefully embedded in my brain forever!  When Liam, Aidan and Connor are older and too cool to go trick-or-treating with their old mom and dad, I will definitely look back and remember today being absolutely perfect!