The Growing Caldwell Family

Halloween was a little different this year. Charlie and I came down with a respiratory infection that almost kept us both from being able to have any fun! Trunk or treat at church and ourw was a Toy Story trunk! So many little kids were excited to see Woody and Buzz! Sis enjoyed helping with the youth trunk, a pajama party theme! Charlie stayed home feeling yuck.  Sis went trick or treating with friends and they dressed as Spice Girls! She had a blast with this sweet group of friends! Where's Waldo! Fun day dressing up at the office. A lot of Waldos headed to a fund Halloween HR meeeting.  Charlie rallied just in time to enjoy trick-or-treating.  We stopped by Lovie and Pops' so they could see him off.  Fun time trick-or-treating with Ziggy and Eli and some of Ziggys neighbors.  Not our busiest Halloween but grateful we could enjoy the day and dress up!  

Trick-or-treating went through many different plans. The kids decided it would. e fun to trick-or-treat with friends. Sarah Graves and her close friends from church had ideas to trick-or-treat in matching costumes in a neigh orhood that puts on a haunted house! Charlie was able to join up with a school buddy whose neighborhood does a block party before trick-or-treat.  The plans went through some twists when Aaron's grandfather got sick and we planned to travel to Shreveport to see him; then, Charlie was sick with a stomach virus that we didn't want to take any chances traveling with. Fortunately, the virus was short lived and no one else picked it up. We were able to put our original plans back in place and everyone was happy! Charlie, Ziggy, and a couple of Ziggy's neighbors had a ball covering every street in the neighborhood! By the end of the night their bags were loaded down! Sis had fun with her friends, but they were not hard core trick-or-treaters like she expected...

In a really busy season it was nice to take time to be together and carve pumpkins. We did our traditional Halloween dinner of roasted hotdogs with chili and they were so good! Pumpkin carving was a lot of fun!  It turns out Livy and Nay are speedy at cleaning and carving a pumpkin! Sis and I scraped and scraped getting ours ready to carve! Lovie had to have some expert help from Livy! Charlie finds pumpkin guts moisturizing for his hands! There were no tears shed over failed designs or unmet expectations! Just fun times carving together.  Charlie took some time to show Pops his coding projects and explain the work that goes into it. Pops was interested to hear all about it!

One of the perks of being in the upper school is going to the middle school socials and the Halloween social was the first one this year.  Char with Ziggy and John On the other side with Ari and Eli Swaja Charlie's friends met up at a restaurant for dinner before the event. Nothing like a gang of crazy eleven year old boys running crazy in costumes!  Sarah Graves met up with a few friends for pizza. A bit more tame for these girls - Chloe, Marcela, and Sabrina The verdict on the social was that it was a lot of fun. Some of the chaperones reported back that the boys got into the dancing! I wasn't sure if it would both Sarah Graves to have her little brother there, but as usual she adores him and was happy to have him there.   

This year we went to two trunk or treats - SFUMC and St. B's.  Sarah Graves worked really hard helping to plan and doing the decorations for the youth trunk. I think they made it look great! Sarah Graves did a group costume with her friends Elizabeth, Carrie, and Chloe. She was so excited for this event! Jono dressed as the ring master to go with the carnival theme, JJ is another leader and he helped the girls out by being Eyore, and JJ's long time friend Christopher jumped in the group! Charlie was in the midst of baseball playoffs and on his way to practice, so he went with the classic baseball player costume for this event! Livy was really excited to be there with her cousins and very much enjoyed hanging out with Sarah Graves and her friends. Sarah Graves was sweet to her and let her stay with her.  Then, it was time for the St. Benedict's trunk or treat.  With Charlie in his E.T. costume, Aaron and i donned ours as Elliot and Gertie.  It was unseasonably warm an...

We had a fun time celebrating Halloween with pumpkin carving, trunk-or-treat, and trick-or-treating! The charcuterie trend inspired SG to want to try making one! For pumpkin carving we had a table full of charcuterie for our snack supper! So much fun! Lots of fun carving these pumpkins and there were no tears over failed designs or creative differences! After several years of family costume themes the kids decided to go their own ways and picked fun costumes for them! Sarah Graves has really blossomed and made so many friends at youth! So fun when you run into a friend!