Our community does a wonderful job putting together family-friendly events.  The Halloween celebration included petting zoo, photo opportunities, pumpkin patch, arts and crafts, various local vendors, games and competitions, hay rides, costume parade, etc.

Paul had to work that weekend (again!), so the girls got dressed up in their costumes - Kayleigh was Mermaid Princess Ariel and Abby was Princess Snow White - and I took them down to the Grange for the celebration.






Later during the week, Kayleigh's class at daycare held a Halloween party and her teachers invited Abby to join them for the costume parade and treats.









Our neighborhood has been pretty low-key for trick or treating, but primarily because of the lack of homes built on our street.  We didn't know how many neighbors would go in for trick or treating, so we took the girls to downtown Parker for their Halloween evening celebration.  It was fun, but overwhelmingly crowded.  That evening, we returned home and found that we were swamped with trick or treaters!  Our neighbors even pulled out the fire pit and we had a grand representation.  Endless groups of kids were seen up and down our street.  I guess next year we will need to make better preparations.

The Denver Botanic Gardens at Chatfield creates one of the nation's largest (8 acres) corn mazes in the fall of every year. Stomping through the maze has been a great activity we've tried to do as a family every year. Abby delights in leading us through the maze and she seems to have a sixth sense about avoiding dead ends!

This year's theme is Community Supported Agriculture.





It had snowed earlier in the week, so the ground was soggy, muddy, and slippery.  All the pumpkins at the pumpkin patch had frozen!  Yet, when the weekend rolled around for our visit, it was warm enough for the girls to walk around in their snow boots without coats. 

Field of frozen pumpkins which they were giving away for free.  For some reason very few people took any.

Even though Kayleigh fell asleep early in the walk, Abby wanted to keep going at the halfway "wimp out" point.  She led us out of the maze in under an hour.