It's a Bug's Life -- Our Halloween Extraviganza

This year we had three nights of Halloween. The first night was the Friday before Halloween and was a fun "pre-show" of the festivities to come.

Halloween its self was a dark and stormy night and most of the towns around here postponed their events till Friday night.  They do that around here, and no one went Trick or Treating.

The the local Baptist Church still had their event in their social hall so I took the kids to that.

I love Halloween and how communities really come together to have fun and hang out together. The Baptist Church Halloween party was very crowded and very fun. Every one was really nice. We met some new people and ran into some friends from our church.











My little bugs enjoyed the candy and prizes they received, especially Obi. He sure does love those suckers.
But even more than the candy, they enjoyed playing the games that were set up in each of the Sunday School class rooms.

 Obi helped his sister put the bean bags in the Pumpkin mouth.

 After that we went to our friends house for some mulled wine, apple cider and hotdogs. And of course more candy. It was a very nice, very happy little Halloween.
The weather didn't seem too bad. There was some rain and there were some pretty strong winds but it wasn't cold.

I found out when I got home that we were actually in a Tornado Watch. I'm glad I didn't know that before I got home though. Being from California the words "Tornado" and "watch" or "warming" kind of freak me out a bit.

The day after Halloween was absolutely beautiful however. That's Tennessee for you.
It was also All Saints Day!
I went to Mass in the morning with the school children so I could see them all dressed up in their Saints costumes.

 Some of them did a really amazing job on their costumes. Aren't they adorable?!

 Then that evening we got our own costumes on one more time and went Trick or Treating.

When you live in a more rural area like we do there aren't normal suburbs for kids to just wonder around in. So many communities have Trunk or  Treating in parking lots or have designated neighborhoods for Trick or Treating.

At least that's how it is where we live.

The local Fire and Police shut down Main Street in town and everyone goes to those house to Trick or Treat.

 What makes it especially amazing is how a lot of people decorate their houses and front yards for Halloween!

There were some pretty cute decorations, and some creepy ones.

Rosie especially liked the yards with blow up things. She and Gregory liked this little creepy house blow up thing.

It's also super fun because every ten feet or so you run into some one you kind of know.  Again, the community coming together and just having fun and playing.

I didn't get many pictures of this event because it was so dark out. But the kids really enjoyed them selves. After we'd tick or treated at all the houses we got to ride on a hay ride back to our car. Rosie thought that was great fun.




We ended the evening back at our out friends house for another Halloween / All Saints Day party.

 Here are the very lovely Ginter sisters in their costumes.

 There was mulled wine, apple cider, hot dogs and chilli, tons of candy, and a bonfire complete with marshmallows to roast.  The kids had a blast completely destroying Gregory's play room. They all played so nicely together. It was like a Halloween miracle.

It was really quite a fantastic Halloween.  At the end of the night Rosie said she was sad that Halloween was over, and I have to admit, I am a little bit too. It really was a wonderful time of hanging out with family and friends.

(trees on Halloween night)

And of course the candy isn't all that bad either.