Halloween

We have this *massive* local church, Cartersville First Baptist I think with about a zillion members. It's really close to our house so I took the girls to their Fall Festival and it was SOOO nice. I loved it because I knew they were surrounded with (comparatively) safe people, and they had so much for them to do. The minute we got there they handed them glow-necklaces and a goody bag, and then we headed straight for the bounce house, which they had all to themselves for like 10 minutes. Then the giant inflatable slide, which was like a clown car of kids, they were trying so hard to keep them in line but it was a total melee, arms and legs sticking out everywhere. Natalie hesitated a little (and I had to teach her the concept of standing in line) but then she went for it. And the surprise of the night, Madeline saw Baby do it once, and jumped right in behind her. Much older kids everywhere, and she just got in line, threw elbows when she needed to, climbed the ladder by herself (she didn't even look at me!!) and only hesitated for a sec at the top, then Cowabunga!! Down she came, with eyes the size of dinner plates, and I won't lie, she wasn't smiling, but she did it. Then it was off to pet the animals, they had a petting zoo!! I couldn't get any pics of that, but there was a pot belly piggy (I've discovered the world's softest nose, sorry Ben) an alpaca (sp?), baby goats, and a horse in full saddle with a guy in boots and a hat riding him, (which they must have hired from Dorky Cowboys R Us, you had to be there, I was just waiting for him to call me 'Mam.)

So then we "Trunk or Treated" and that was so much fun, everyone had their trunks decorated in different themes, and some of them were so clever. They got loads of candy, and then they had their faces painted. By that time it was dark and getting cold, (and I told them they couldn't eat any candy until we got home and I could look it over) so we "cracked" their glow necklaces, and they came around with glow bracelets too, and those were so much fun through the dark parking lot (which has to be 6 acres, this is a huge church) and in the car on the way home, I might add. They slept with their glow necklaces as "night lights," they love those things. I was really impressed by the Fall Festival, we will definitely do that again.