This year for Halloween, Catie decided that she didn’t want to be a dinosaur, which she’s been pretty much every year since she was two. She got a lab coat from science camp, so she decided she wanted to be a scientist.

Lucy, like pretty much every other little girl (and some boys) in America, wanted to be Elsa. I decided that was fine with me.

(I’m not sure why the pool noodle was involved.)

Lucy had actually not decided what she wanted to be up until the last minute: she kept going back and forth between “Princess Peach!” (referring to the poofy pink princess dress that my mom made her), and “Elsa! No, Anna! No, I mean Elsa!” Three year-olds are infuriatingly indecisive. So on Thursday, my mom went to Wal-mart and bought both Elsa and Anna. We figured we’d let her pick, and then return the other one. Turns out, she loved both, because after we got back from trick-or-treating, she wanted to be Anna.

So, ok, fine. Now we have bonus costumes.

It was pretty funny that she was very clear about, “I not real Elsa, I just Lucy-Elsa.” Got it. Thanks for the clarification, sweet girl.

Catie had initially been resistant to the idea of Halloween at all. She had said she would dress up, but she wanted to stay home with my mom and hand out candy.

She has important scientific discoveries to work on, you know.

I reminded her of the one neighbor’s house who set up their backyard like a spooky haunted house, which she loved last year. She said she’d walk with us, just to go see that house, but that was all. No trick-or-treating for her.

(Side note: that dude gives out FULL SIZE candy bars. His wife said he has a storage unit for all of his haunted house props for the rest of the year because they don’t have room for it in their garage. He’s either a huge Halloween enthusiast, or a little nuts. Either way, it was amazing.)

Of course, by the 2nd house, Catie was helping Lucy up to the door, and she was totally into it. I’m glad I made her bring a bag, because girl got a LOT of candy.

When we got home, I was thinking how weird it is that Catie wasn’t a dinosaur this year. Then she went into the bathroom to change, and came out like this.

“I’m a scientist who had an accident in the lab!”

Yeah, thaaaat’s more like it. (And kudos to Children’s Place for their costumes, because I bought that dinosaur costume in 2012, and this is its 3rd year making an appearance.)

Last year, Lucy only trick-or-treated maybe the first 5 houses before she got overwhelmed and my mom took her home. This year, she trooped all over the neighborhood like a champ. It was great.

(Well: edit that. She made Chris carry her a little bit toward the end. But she did most of it all on her own.)

This is technically Dave’s weekend to have the kids, but there isn’t a whole lot of trick-or-treating to be done in an apartment complex. So I volunteered to take them out – because I love Halloween – and then dropped them off after we were done. I knew they were pretty well over-sugared by the time I dropped them off, and he texted me today that they didn’t settle down and go to sleep until sometime after 10:30. Which sounds about right. I’m glad they’re both old enough to really enjoy the holiday, though.

And then I got to go home and look at all my friends’ kids in their adorable costumes when I got home. Someone said Halloween and the first day of school are the best days to be on Facebook, and I totally agree.

And now it’s November. How weird is that?