Travelingjenny

As we do every year, we trick-or-treated on Main Street in Freeport with Grace's oldest friend. It was wonderful and fun as always, and we appreciated the early timing of the event (4-6pm!) and the sunshine. Grace loved running down the street with her friend, and comparing candy.

What I loved most of all this year, though, was watching little bat-Tess fly solo a bit. She still mostly held my (or Adam's) hand, and but she was much more willing to chase after Grace and walk up to the candy-givers by herself. And she was so very excited, and so into the whole event. It was really wonderful to see her spread her little bat wings a bit.

Each year, the kindergartners and first- and second-graders work together to create a "spooky path" in the woods outside their classrooms. The kids work together on decorations — like tombstones and hanging pipe-cleaner spiders — and then they stand along the path in their costumes and act spooky as the other students parade through the woods. This annual event began when Grace's was in kindergarten, but this year was extra-special because it was Tess's first year to participate in creating the spooky path, and Grace's last year. It was really a treat to get to see cute little bat-Tess act scary ("You look yummy! Grrrrrrr…") and to see Grace be witchy with her friends. 

In typical Grace and Tess style, they have taken leaf-jumping to another level. They like to rake a big pile of leaves over to the slide and then slide down into it head first. But even that is not always enough — of course, it is even more fun to slide down into each other, or to pull each other's boots off while sliding. Really, the possibilities are endless.