Orange & Black {stripes}

The devil is in the details.  And, as evidenced from the above stripey legs pictures, the devil wasn't anywhere near our trick-or-treating fun on Halloween (stripey legs are so much cuter without tenner shoes on. Details, details...).  

This year they made is really easy for me.  For the past month or two Max said he wanted to be a witch. He didn't flip flop on his decision, he just went from wanting to be a witch, to wanting to be a scary witch, to the scariest witch ever, to a witch with a broom, a witch with a magic wand, etc.

Otto was equally decisive.  As soon as he saw the stuffed pumpkin costume that Max had worn a couple years ago (and cousin Lily had worn a year before Max...and that myself and my sisters had worn about 25 years before both of them!), he said he wanted to be the "snuggly pumpkin," also unwavering in his decision.  

And then Wren, who I thought would have made a darling lion (or most anything else), given her wild, wavy hair, just "came along for the ride" and was a pumpkin too.  

Nice and traditional.  Not complicated.  Plenty of time for costume creativity in the years to come.  Until then, we had our "very own little Schuster pumpkin patch" as Greta called them.  

It was another fun year of trick-or-treating.  As expected, Max wanted to be the fastest and would dart from house to house.  Otto took plenty of time enjoying the sights and sounds of the night, realizing that in the end he'd wind up with just as much candy as his older brother because Max would need to stop and wait for Otto and the rest of us to catch up with him every few houses.  

While congregated at our neighbor's house before heading out to trick-or-treat, we were nearly set to take off around the block and I realized Otto was nowhere in site.  After a quick scan across the front lawn and towards their front door I noticed the puffy pumpkin plopped just inside their house.  Picking candy after candy from their bowl and putting it into his treat bucket.  Our neighbor's didn't flinch - especially since they're the ones who named Otto "the ninja" for his silent, stealthy actions.  Off we went - the majority of the candy put back into the serving bowl.

A couple houses in, and a few yards behind Otto, I realized we forgot to practice some Halloween etiquette.  We practiced saying "Trick or Treat" (not "Trick or Treat Give Me Something Good To Eat"), and we practiced saying "Thank You."  But we forgot about doorbells.  In the few yards I was behind Otto, we was able to ring it about six times in the matter of moments.  

Otto also liked to crouch down nice and close to the jack-o-lanterns and try to blow out the candles.  

At Otto's pace he was able to polish off the candy he collected at one house and be ready for the next piece of candy to be unwrapped for him as he received candy from the next house.  

So much fun for him as his older brother darted from house to house just to stop and wait :)

Wren was out a bit past bed time and a trooper, considering the next day she came down with a horrible stomach bug.  Not to get into too much gory detail - but the past couple days have been the grossest sickness any of my kids have had.  She is hurtin' with so much vomit and diarrhea.  And then passed it along to Otto.  I had taken a vacation day on Halloween and literally got rid of all piles of laundry from my house (1st time in a year)...  And then it was all undone is such a short amount of time!  Buried in masses of soiled clothes, towels, bedding, etc over here!  Clearly there's a reason I don't care too much about prioritizing all piles of dirty laundry - because it's never really going to be done.

Happy Halloween!  

Max & Otto with cousins Grace, Quintin & Lyla at the Nature Center Halloween Party earlier in October