"I'm a Monkey!"

I finally can start putting pictures back on the blog so of course I'll start with halloween. Sage insisted on being a monkey this year due to her love of Curious George. This year was special because we got to join cousins Kade, Anika and Kason at a community trick-or-treat put on by the Lions Club. She was so excited to go but the minute we stepped into the gym her shy side took over and we spent the entire time there watching people stand in line to play one of the too few games offered. Whoever is putting this thing together needs to sit with some kids for awhile to reassess what fun is exactly for kids because the excitement level of this shindig is floating at a 2...and I'm being nice. We went outside afterwards and made an attempt at taking a group picture of the kids. It was at this point that Clare did some trick-or-treating of her own by taking samples of whatever nature had left for her to grasp. We had many pauses during our photo shoot for me to run and rummage out whatever leaf/stick/acorn she had stuffed in her mouth. After that we headed to great great aunt Judith's who gave both Sage and Clare a quarter. She also tried to pawn off a duck figuring that she had won at a senior citizens event but Sage didn't take her up on the offer. She was planning on not answering the door to any trick-or-treaters except for us and my brother's kids but while we were at her house the doorbell rang. I could tell by her expression that she was a bit flustered and I could hear her muttering under her breath, "I hope there aren't many...I don't have a lot of quarters." She was greeted by SEVEN kids at her door. She came back in and was going to try to think up something to give them (I should have told her to offer the duck) but I'm pretty sure she sent them away empty handed. Oh Judith, you would absolutely love her if you knew her. She's a 90 year old woman with a sharper mind than me. Quite spry as well. When we walked into her living room I sat Clare on the floor and Judith, in one swift move, was sitting on the floor with not a hint as to any ailment she felt on the way down. My one big bummer was that I was so busy chatting with her that I didn't think to get the camera out to take pictures. We'll just have to go visit her again. Maybe I'll bring her a better duck.

After Judith's we headed out to Ehren and Ester's so that they could say they had at least one trick-or-treater (it's a depressing show if you live in the country). Then we headed back to my parents who had had just as sad of a turn out. We are now nibbling frequently on fruit snacks and tootsie rolls...I really like tootsie rolls...

...I went and got a tootsie roll.