The Halloween with Smoked Meat

One of the essential elements of our friendship with the Francos is our shared love of good food. When Luis decided he would stay home from work on Halloween in order to smoke pork for 20 hours, we were all in. After last year's great time, the kids had already requested that we return to the Francos' neighborhood, and the stellar menu simply sealed the deal.

It was our sixth year in a row for sharing Halloween with these special friends, and every year really outdoes the last. (Not even just because of the menu, but oh man, it was good.) Laura has had a rather mercurial week, perhaps because she had several festivities this week, so I wasn't sure what to expect from her, but she both hung in for the long haul AND opted to hang with the big kids for the vast majority of the time. This is a humongous win in my book.

Clare was very proud that we pulled this costume together at home, instead of ordering it from a catalog. She makes a lovely fortune teller, in my humble opinion.

 It was a brisk evening, and some rain took the trick-or-treaters by surprise, but a respectable amount of candy was acquired - enough for the traditional sorting, trading, and organizing, certainly. Phew.

This is Laura with "Elsa braids" on our way to the gymnastics Halloween class. These braids made her cry and declare she would never wear her hair like this again. Bummer.

The perfect rock for singing "Let it Go!"

Since we were not going to be home, we left a bowl of candy for our neighborhood trick-or-treaters. Laura generously offered to guard it until it was time for us to leave. She's a giver, that one.

Hard to believe that yet another Halloween is on the books, but glad to know that we are still adding wonderful memories.