Halloween '08

I sort of can't believe I blogged about my dog (and her new toy) before I made mention of my nieces and their '08 Halloween endeavors.

While it's Sophia's 3rd Halloween - so of course she has the drill down pat - it's merely Charlotte's first...so it was considered a success that she stayed awake for most of it.

Sophia got to be a mermaid this year - albeit a "cold weather mermaid". See, 3-year-olds are so smart and they have brains like sponges, remembering EVERYTHING. When my sister got home with the mermaid costume one night and presented it to her daughter, Sophia's first reaction - after approximately 4 seconds of looking at it - was, "Mom. Mermaids don't have sleeves!"

She has a point...my sister had to think on her feet and replied, "Well, Sophia, you're going to be a Northern Mermaid - because it's cold, you have sleeves. Mermaids who live in warm weather, like Ariel, don't have sleeves."

"OK" was the reply. Whew. Crisis averted.

Charlotte, on the other hand, was quite content to hang out in the baby carrier and watch the festivities with eyes bigger than the new moon.
She made it 'til about 7:30 before becoming a wilted baby flower and nodding off.

Oh, and Clint even dressed up...he was Creepy White Collar Guy lurking in the shadows. Goober.

However, I do have to admit the coolest part of the evening was heading over to my sister's neighbors' house, where they'd decorated the ENTIRE yard with ~36 blow-up statues. Not sure of the technical term, but it was a veritable Halloween Paradise!

They received about 180 trick-or-treaters that night...evidently the word is out on the street that Robbinsdale has a pretty cool place to go!

It got even better after dark...

Unfortunately, my camera's not too good at taking the low-light pictures...so I didn't get any of kids actually going through the tunnels.

But, I DID happen to catch the ghost of a creepy guy in business casual attire...