About 5:30 yesterday afternoon, we loaded the girls up in their wagon and headed up the street to Trunk or Treat (or Trick or Trunk as Gracie calls it) at the Methodist church.


Gracie couldn't wait to wear her costume.  Considering her behavior on past Halloweens, this was a small miracle.  Two years ago, she ran shrieking from her green Tinkerbell costume and last year, she refused to put her Pocahontas costume on for Trunk or Treat and only agreed at the last nanonsecond to wear it Trick or Treating on Halloween night.  We started walking - okay, I started walking, Steve took off at something that was more like a horse galloping along, pulling a wagon.  Within five minutes, this was how far ahead of me they were:


I gave up trying to catch up and just enjoyed the cool afternoon walk!  Once we got there, Gracie was in preschooler heaven.  She ran from trunk to trunk, quietly saying, "Trick or Treat" and even more quietly mumbling, "Thank you!"  My grandparents met us there and every few cars, she'd run back to show them how quickly her little black pail (that looks like the lunch pails they used on Little House) was filling up with candy.  Most of my pictures of her are from behind, because she was in too big of a hurry to bother with turning around, much less smiling (Candy gathering takes a lot of energy, you know!)


And Abigail?  Well, she held court in her Daddy's arms for most of the evening.  But, once they had visited all the trunks, she played in the field, dancing to the live music.  Here she is practicing to be the Queen of Rap:


Gracie enjoyed this time, too, because she got to do her favorite Laura Ingalls activity.  "Flying like Laura" (remember in the opening credit of Little House where they run down the hill waving their arms) is what she calls this


And then, because her boots made a cool sound on the hard ground, she had to stomp and stomp and stomp


Last year, when we went, it felt harried and cold and not what I was hoping it would be.  Of course, Abigail was only six weeks old last year and everything felt harried.  This year, though, was wonderful and more even than I'd hoped for.  Gracie and Abigail both had fun.  I was a million times more relaxed than I was this time last year, so I had fun.  Steve was as proud as a peacock showing off his girls (and I was pretty proud, too).  And, I think my grandparents had fun, too.  My favorite picture of the whole night is this one.  Gracie was holding my hand, then dropped it and said, "No!  I want to hold GreatGran's!"