All the Halloweens.

In the aftermath of Grandma's departure, at least we had Halloween. It's my least favorite holiday, but my Mom has always loved it, as do F+F. 

So does, inexplicably, Seth, who invariably conspires with Finley to con everyone into family costumes. But I digress.

At least we got our money's worth of sweatshop spandex. First, there was my work fall festival, to which Seth did not make it and at which I was too mortified at being clothed in spandex in front of my senior rater (a three star general) to take any pictures.

Then, Boo at the Zoo for our local rescue zoo, which we adore. Where the kids can feed Stretch the giraffe,

pet revoltingly enormous Burmese pythons,

stand back to avoid being in spit radius while Dad feeds the camels,

play on seriously dilapidated and probably dangerous playground equipment with old friends,

and dote on their real favorite animals, the owners' dogs.

Pre-Halloween weekend also involved Finley's first "big girl" birthday party, a roller skate party which included approximately five minutes of actual skating

and a couple of unseasonably warm fall nights on which Dad was- unusually- home. Which meant evening bike rides (we love where we live)

and trips to see the hit of the season, our Dutch neighbors' contribution to American Halloween: this large inflatable dragon. The kids adore it, and ride their bikes to say hi to the dragon every night. As a result, Halloween being over is going to really kill our bedtime routine, and I'm trying to figure out a way to convince the neighbors that there is such a thing in America as a "Christmas dragon." Any and all ideas appreciated.

Halloween itself was idyllic. Upper 70s and sunny. The family costume, sudden mask aversion notwithstanding, was a hit.

Thanks to Jayne, the house looked festive.

Seth got home in time to drive the kids around trick or treating on the golf cart (along with the rest of the neighborhood) while I handed out candy and sipped pumpkin beer. (Don't feel too sorry for him. The golf cart has cupholders.)

And F+F consumed a reasonable amount of candy and were down for the count by 8pm. (This is them pretending to sleep when I checked on them at 7:45.)

We're enjoying this calm version of Halloween while we can, and know it won't last.

Nor will this, my favorite photo of the week. In a post-Halloween coma (and inexplicably missing some PJ items), F+F climbed in our bed early this morning. I woke up Thursday to go for a run and saw this:

Here's hoping everyone's Halloween included pumpkin beer, a decent bedtime, and sleepy snuggles.