a "sort of" halloween

I'm sorry to report (yes, very late) that trick-or-treating was a no-go for us this year. Alas! As you may be aware, trick-or-treating was postponed due to the hurricane, and on its "rain date", Ellie woke up with a bad cold and a fever. Fortunately she had forgotten all about trick-or-treating by then, and I was somehow able to shield her eyes from the hoards of costumed moochers roaming the streets outside. (It helped that we only had one group come to our door; our entrance is incognito since we live over a storefront.)

Even so, Elliott got to wear her pirate costume at a friend's birthday party a few days before she fell ill. She had wanted to be a fairy princess all year but suddenly decided pirate was the way to go! Between her wardrobe, dress-up collection, Payless, and Ryan's crafty skills (check out the vest), we were able to whip up a cute little costume with no trouble at all. I think it turned out pretty cute, and I'm grateful she had a chance to wear it. Here are some pictures of our friendly little pirate on the night of the party:

There was also no shortage of Halloween festivities at school, where the children performed a little concert for us doting parents, grandparents, and guardians.  Though Ellie had been singing her Halloween songs around the house for weeks and seemed pretty excited about the show, on the morning of the concert she voiced some trepidation about having us all join her at school that day. She was none-too-thrilled when she saw us out in the audience, and instead of singing and doing the moves with the other kids, she just stood there, sometimes bobbing around to the music, but also doing a good deal of pouting. Encouragement from her teachers to sing just upset her more, as did big smiles and thumbs ups from her mamma. However, she did enjoy herself immensely during one of the numbers, as you will see in this next clip:

Let me wrap up my (very late) Halloween post with a little message we recorded to wish our friends and family a happy Halloween. (By the way, Zoey, who was slated to dress up as the world's cutest witch, never ended up donning a witch's hat due to the lack of trick-or-treating; at least we had dressed her in something festive for Halloween day!)