Today has been an unbelievably gorgeous day! (It's amazing what a little sun will do for a person's disposition!) The sun's been shining all day long, and it's been unseasonably warm (for here). I went for a run and wore a long sleeved shirt, but would have been comfortable in a short sleeved one.

Friday evening was the start of our Halloween festivities this year. There was a Halloween fair in the gym at MHS, with lots of games and things for kiddos to do. Ryan could participate a little bit more this year than he could last year. He did a "treasure hunt," where kids looked for big "coins" in a bunch of hay. Ryan actually found a couple. It was neat, because he saw some coins stacked on the nearby table, so he put the ones he found back on the table. He did this all on his own, without being told, and without seeing anyone else do it.

There were lots of freebies at the fair, which was fun. At one station, there were big plastic eyeballs with various "prizes" in them. Ryan picked one out that had a cute pumpkin necklace in it.

There was an area with little kiddie tables and chairs, with paper and drawing utensils. Ryan sat down to draw, and of course went for the markers. I just have to ask, who puts out permanent markers for kids to color with??? (Especially kids in costumes!!!) Luckily, Ryan didn't get any on his costume.

My mom always made my Halloween costumes, and I am thrilled that the tradition continues with Ryan. Ryan is a Jedi this year, specifically Obi Wan Kenobi (from Episode II). Ryan's the cutest little Jedi ever (if I do say so)! My mom even included a light sabre, which is about twice as big as Ryan is! :)

After the fair, Ryan and Larry and I walked to the housing area for trick or treating. It was a perfect night for it, with a yellow crescent moon low on the horizon, and an occasional creepy cloud drifting by.

This was Ryan's first time trick or treating! At first he wasn't too sure what to do. After a while, he sort of got the hang of it; although he mostly just wanting to ring people's doorbells, and go inside their houses! We never did get him to say, "trick or treat," but we think we heard a quiet, "thank you," once or twice!

It was great fun taking Ryan trick or treating. Larry and I are both so glad to have a safe environment for him to trick or treat in.

Once home, we of course had to check out Ryan's haul! Pretty respectable, for a first time. We let Ryan pick out something to eat. He only ate one piece of his candy. He's always been that way though - never a glutton. We would have let him have a bit more, but he wasn't interested. One piece was plenty! :)

Our Halloween festivities continued the next day, with a baby sitting co-op trip to a place called, The Forbidden Corner. http://www.yorkshirenet.co.uk/theforbiddencorner/ We were supposed to dress up, so I put Ryan in his costume again (any excuse for him to wear it more than once!), and I put on my ren faire outfit. Larry declined to dress up.

We were the first ones there. I saw British families getting out of their cars, and none of them were dressed up! I was starting to worry. After a little while, the rest of the co-op members arrived, and it seemed no one else had dressed up! I was beginning to feel like a chump, but then to my great relief, Carissa and Tom and their boys were dressed up. Yay! :)

It was lunch time, so we all had a bite to eat in the café there before heading out to explore the Forbidden Corner.

The place turned out to be a lot of fun! It's pretty much all outside. It's sort of a big maze, with lots of things to explore and surprises to be had. You get a pamphlet at the start, which has clues in the form of rhymes that lead you around the park's various sites. If you're not careful, you can get squirted with water at various points throughout the park (which I think is particularly evil, considering it's cold and windy this time of year)! Overall is was a lot of fun and I'm glad we went.

The last part of our Halloween (or, "Hallowe'en," as it's spelled over here) festivities will be on Tuesday. We'll be giving out candy to trick or treaters. Last year Ryan loved answering the door. I hope he'll enjoy it this year, too!

(Photo album to follow.)