We survived Halloween.

Benjamin was a robot this year. We were all going to dress up as a robot family, but it took a lot of work to just put together his costume and by the time that was done, I was burned out on robot-making. We attended two Halloween events before the big day: a community education party at the Plummer House and a Harvest Moon Festival at IBM. The costume was a big hit; everywhere we went, adults were complimenting it and kids were trying to push the "buttons."

Friday night we went up to Minneapolis so that Mike could pick up his race packet for the Monster Dash half marathon. We stayed the night at my parents' house because they were taking Benjamin to the HallZOOween event at the Minnesota Zoo. Mike and I were up very early Saturday morning to head out to the race site, Lake Harriet. I had volunteered for the race as a course marshal, so I had to set up some barricades at two intersections and make sure no cars got onto the course. Mike's brother, Andy, came out to watch the race with me. I blasted Thriller on my car radio with all of the doors open to give the runners some entertainment at what ended up being mile 6.5 of the half marathon and mile 3 of the 10 mile race. We got a lot of thumbs-ups and shout-outs for the music, which was fun. Mike had a good run, but he accidentally lost the chip that he had tied to his shoe, which electronically tracks his time. He has no official race time, but finished in about 1 hour, 41 minutes.

Mike and I had lunch with Andy and Jennifer and then we met up with Benjamin and my parents. Just the three of us then joined Joe, Jen and the kids at their house for trick-or-treating. Mike, Joe and I took AJ and Benjamin up and down a block near their house. The boys were very good and loved getting all of their candy. After we got back to the house, Mike and I got into our costumes (Miss Piggy and the Swedish Chef) and a bunch of friends came over for Joe and Jen's Halloween party. We had a fun time at the party and on Sunday we all got together to watch the Packers/Vikings game. Unfortunately, Minnesota won, but it was fun to watch. I still haven't taken down my indoor Halloween decorations. I think I am in denial about it being November now. There is one good thing about that though: my birthday is in a couple of weeks!