The last couple of Halloween’s have been synonymous to misery for me, and I believe for Chris also. The first one, at 6 months, was painful for everyone involved, except Ava. We dressed the triplets up in their cheesy little baby costumes and they screamed and cried all the way to the park. The second year, we dressed Ava in a Go-Go Dancer costume, which she chose on her own, and the triplets were various wild animals. They were slightly more tolerable of them at 1 1/2 than they were at 6 months. Mom and dad were still fairly miserable though. We strolled them to a few houses with the help of some neighbors and then we called it quits. Phew, another obligatory Halloween over. Check.

Our second annual Halloween photo with the triplets. Aren't they having a blast? And look how much fun we are having.
This year was a different story. I knew as Halloween approached that this year Ava wouldn’t be the only one out of a family of six having a good time. We started out with our annual trip to our neighborhood park with all the neighbor friends, and then we headed out to trick or treating. Ava was gone in a flash. She was running from house to house with her friends and we never saw her again for the rest of the time we were trick or treating. We were definitely too slow for her, but we missed her. The triplets kept saying, “where Ava go?” I wish that she was with us. The triplets got the hang of trick or treating by the first house. They would knock on the door and say “trick or treat!” or sometimes “can I please have candy?” and then they would invite themselves in. They don’t know the trick or treating boundaries yet, so they would walk in and Elsa would comment on their decor and they would help themselves to some candy. We were invited to stay for dinner at several houses; the triplets were quite the trick or treating sensation in Eastwood Park. At a few houses the person who was handing out candy would call for their spouse, “Hank, you have to some see this. . . quick!”

They wanted to trick or treat until 8 . . . they thought it was just about the best thing that has ever happened to them. Violet going to sleep in her costume
Wednesday we got all the kids their flu shots. Chris took them one at a time back into the room to get them done. Elsa hardly cried but she did discuss afterward the traumatic events that had taken place. Preston cried a little bit like he was so hurt that someone would want to stick a needle in him. As we were waiting for Violet to get her shot done in the waiting room I could hear her screaming. Chris said she knew the second she was in the room that she was going to get a shot and she wasn’t going to like it which was the time that she began screaming. She was pretty pissed when she got back to the waiting room but a few lollipops helped make everything better.