Chauntelle's Random Musings: VOTE!!! And also, Happy Halloween!

Okay, I'm getting to this post a little later than I intended, but since today is Election Day--

GO VOTE!!!!

I don't care who you vote for (well, okay, I do...but this isn't going to be my political soapbox, so I won't go there), just VOTE!!!! Yes, the lines will probably be long--we went to our little polling place at 7:05, and were done by about 8:15ish. Funny, though...the line was shorter when we LEFT than when we got there! This election is an amazing opportunity--so exercise the right that we have, and go stand in line, meet your neighbors, and VOTE!!!!

(Plus, if you vote, you get a nifty little sticker! The folks at our polling place even gave one to Noah--yes, we took him and he charmed the pants off of the people standing in line!)

Okay, now to the Happy Halloween part of the post!

We were going to go to the mall, since our neighborhood just isn't great for trick-or-treating (we had 2 kids stop by, a woman and her two boys that live about a block over, and they weren't even dressed up. That's okay...we didn't have very good candy, so I guess we're even!). But, at the last minute, Patrick suggested Mom & Dad's old neighborhood, so we went there. We wanted to be there by 6, but that didn't happen... Noah's schedule was ALL messed up, but at least it was a Friday night, and it only happens once a year, so we're not terrible parents, right?

Noah was SPIDERMAN! I should have gotten a 3T costume...not sure where my brain was, so the costume was a bit tight, but he LOVED it! Did NOT want to take it off! It came with a little cap, which surprisingly, he liked wearing, too. The piece de resistance was the "mask" --spiderman eyes on an elastic string. There was NO WAY Noah was going to let that mask over his head. So, I used some Mommy Ingenuity and took off the elastic and hot-glued the mask to some of his "cool baby" sunglass frames. He tolerated it enough for a couple of pictures, which, really, is the most important part!

We had a great time trick-or-treating, and Noah was even knocking on the doors & saying "Trick-or-Treat" and "thank you!" and "Happy Halloween!" One of the houses had a HUGE inflatable Elmo on a pumpkin, and Noah was talking about that for DAYS. He enjoyed seeing the other kids dressed up, and for the most part nearly every house had some sort of elaborate scene going on, so that was great. And, saw lots of Mom & Dad's old neighbors who send their "Hellos" and wanted to know when you're coming back! One of the neighbors said that they think that the big house on the end of the cul-de-sac may be coming up for sale soon, but as it's the biggest house there, I'm not sure that it would be in our price range... Saw the folks who bought Mom & Dad's house, and I tried to peek in to see if they changed anything, but it was hard to do that & be subtle!

Towards the end of the journey (we were only out for MAYBE an hour), Noah's Spiderman head candy bucket was too heavy for him to carry, so he was handing it off to us after he collected his booty. He got some great candy, too; not like the crap that we bought to hand out!

I think that we made the best decision--I think the mall would have been way too crazy, with too many people; I think the way we did it was great for Noah's first time to really trick-or-treat. Enjoy the pictures!