trunk or treat

Sunday was SUMC's annual Fall Festival and trunk-or-treat. For Halloween this year, Hannah wanted to be a mermaid. There was no discussion; she had her mind made up. And she was emphatic about the red wig. As for Joseph, Joe picked out a shark costume at TJ Maxx a while ago. We were meant to be creatures of the sea...

We parked the car and rushed to get our trunk ready, while Meme took the kids to play. We caught up with the kids post-face and pumpkin painting, just in time for the games...

 My Little Mermaid

 Ring toss...and more importantly, candy for trying

I didn't look at the pictures as I was taking them on my camera, so when I did upload them to my computer, I thoroughly enjoyed looking at my sea babies having a good time and experiencing the excitement all over again... And realizing how similar they are. 

Like this:

Taking a break to fuel up on some sugar
 

 She loves pixie sticks.

Now, about this fishing game...

Joseph seemed very confused. When first told to "go fish" he went and tried to grab a painted fish on the big wall in front of him. I mean, why would you try to get whatever's behind the plywood when there are fish right in front of you? If you think about it, it is confusing indeed. I'm on Joseph's side for this one. He's suppose to get a fish, directed to put his line over where the fish are, and for some reason candy is thrown back at him...ohhh-kaaay. But, hey, he'll always take more candy when given to him.

Hannah was an old pro.

Next up was a dart-throwing/balloon-popping game. Not exactly safe for little ones, but mine had a different approach.

But neither were sure about the loud popping noises.

...Hey, we're getting candy for destroying stuff. Alright!

We skipped right over the bob-for-apples game (for obvious reasons) and Hannah putted with her Dad.

Admiring another mermaid, our friend, Kessler

 Time for the hayride!

Before we headed inside the church to eat hot dogs and chili, we came to the Cliff Hanger.

You may remember last year's trunk-or-treat when Hannah went down the big slide all by herself. Well, this year's was different - higher and steeper and no flat landing at the top. So as not to miss the fun (and because she really wanted to do it), I offered to go down with her.

She loved it. And after watching, Joseph said he wanted to do it. We were all shocked, and I asked him about three more times if he was sure, but he did...and loved it, too!

Meme got a picture of us all going up...

Yes, that's Joe climbing up the ladder with Hannah. Yes, the same Joe that is in PT for multiple injuries. But he was fine, no harm done. As for the picture of us going down...Heyward is in the way.

All four of us enjoyed it. Think we've started a Buck family tradition.

After dinner was the trunk-or-treat, where as you probably know (or can figure out) is when all the kids go car to car trick-or-treating from trunks. We've participated the last three years. This year we stuck to the mermaid/shark theme and made our trunk look like the sea. Obviously, Joe and I had to take part with poster board goldfish costumes.

The kids helped hand out Goldfish crackers.

...Then went off to find some goodies of their own.

It was a lot of fun, with some church members going all out with very creative themes for their trunks (Duck Commander - check, Candyland board game - check).

Now, the real Halloween is tomorrow and we've got some more fun planned. Stay tuned!