Halloween Hayride

 Last night we went on a Halloween hayride around town. It was a hoot.

The cast of characters started assembling about 5 o'clock.

Desert Boy decided to be a skeleton superhero--for awhile. Then he decided he wanted to be a plain skeleton.

Cute Isaac.

We tried to get all the kids to look in the same direction at the same time. I guess it was a bit of a lost cause, but they were all really cute anyway.

Then some more kids arrived and we took more photos. Fun costumes! We kept gaining kids through the evening. At the end I was surprised to see how many were on the hayride. I think most all the kids in town came. There aren't too many places where you can say nearly all the kids went trick-or-treating together. (I guess most people wouldn't want to live in a place like that!)

And here comes the hayride! Fortunately we had a low trailer, which made it really easy to get on and off.

Desert Boy thought it was so cool.

Folks piled on and started chatting. That was one of the best parts of the hayride--having time to talk to each other. Okay, the candy was important, too.

It was an absolutely beautiful night--warm temperatures and no wind. We couldn't have asked for anything better.

The trick-or-treating around town was a little hit-or-miss. Here are the kids retreating from the upstairs apartments, where nobody was home. We had slightly more houses with candy than without candy, so that was good. And all the kids ended up with more candy than they really needed. Or than they and their parents needed. (Come on, everyone knows that parents raid their kids' Halloween candy!)

One of the consequences of trick-or-treating en masse was that the big kids always got to the door first and the little kids last. Here's Emma at the end of the line. She didn't care, though. She was so excited to be mobile and be able to go trick-or-treating. She even managed a few quiet "trick-or-treats" and "thank yous." I was so proud.

The final stop was the community center, where folks who lived outside of the main town gathered to throw a great Halloween party. They had gobs of candy and cookies. They also had craft projects and plenty of good spirit.

It was a super way to end the evening, and nice to see everyone's costumes again in plenty of light.

Thanks to Carol for organizing the Halloween party at the community center. And thanks to everyone who went on the hayride. It sure was fun to be with you!