Twick-or-Tweat!

If the paparazzi could kindly finish, I would like to get back to trick-or-treating, please.

Happy belated Halloween, Everyone!  I hope you and yours had a wonderful holiday.  Over at Chateau Crimmins, we had a blast.  Wow, what a difference a year makes!  This time last year, Fionn thought the point of Halloween night was to invade people's homes once they cracked open the door.  I had to yell, "Watch out, he's comin' in!" at every house.  Granted, this was pretty darn appropriate given that he was a pirate (he was just after the bounty that was his, after all).  Also, last year Fionny couldn't say "trick-or-treat" hardly at all, so it sounded something more like "Tay-Tay!"  And it was definitely said without any sort of consistency.  Lastly, we hit about 5 houses last year, and then we were done.

But this year...Well, for starters, Fionn can say "trick-or-treat."  Or at least something very, very close.  See title of this blog for clarification.  Also, he said it at every single house.  In fact, sometimes he said it a few times at each house (good measure, you know).  Speaking of houses, we covered 2 full neighborhood blocks this year.  And, believe me, Fionn definitely could have continued on his candy-obtaining mission.  However, Conor and I wanted to get back to our house for our own twick-or-tweeters.  Our neighborhood, by the way, gets TONS of trick-or-treaters.  But I'll get to that part in a second.

First, let me share a few more pictures from the first part of the night.  We invited a few of Fionn's neighborhood besties over for pizza before the night's activities began.  And we tried to get the obligatory all-kids-on-deck photo.  This endeavor was met with mild success.   Exhibit A.

Ballerina, police officer, Elmo, two brown elephants, Oompa Loompa, and Willy Wonka

However, once we set out on our mission at hand, the kids were on a roll.  Check out this adorable pic of Fionn and his dear friend, Zach.  Doesn't it look like Elmo is being taken in by the 5-0?  I hope Officer Zach read him his Miranda rights.

You have the right to remain furry...

Even though trick-or-treating was a complete success, my favorite Halloween moments occurred once we got back to the house.  Fionn L-O-V-E-D handing out candy to the other children.  He sat impatiently at the window, waiting for that telltale thud of feet coming up our steps at which time he would shout, "More people!" Then he would grab the candy bowl, open the door, and set the candy bowl on the ground.  This confused many of the children, but I explained that it helped Fionn get a better grip on the enormous amounts of candy he was about to deal out.  And sure enough, he did not disappoint.  I'm talking massive handfuls of candy into each bag, people.  We eventually had to limit Fionn, telling him to give just two pieces to each person.  We joked that our boy was definitely practicing the Golden Rule of "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."  Haha!

Here is probably my favorite pic of Fionny from this Halloween.  It was taken from the other side of the window which looks out onto the porch.  So this is what trick-or-treaters saw as they stamped across our porch to the front door.  We'll title this one, "Waiting for Kiddos."

Fionn eventually lost interest in the Elmo costume and wanted to take it off.  It was quite toasty in there, I think.  Actually, I can definitely attest to the toasty factor because Fionn immediately insisted that Conor and I both take our turn at being Elmo.  We obliged, of course.

My turn as Elmo even landed me a smooch from my boy.  Well, I guess technically it was Elmo who got the smooch.

Altogether, it was a fantastic Halloween.  I am already looking forward to next year because I know that Fionn will have memories from this Halloween which will make him all the more excited.  Man, sometimes it's fun to be a parent.  Not always -- let's be clear.  But sometimes it really rocks.

We're headed out to the Smokey Mountains on Friday morning, so my next update will (hopefully) include some great pics from our trip.  Until then...