The Great Pumpkin Walk

Last night we headed downtown E. Lansing for the Great Pumpkin Walk, which is trick-or-treat at the local businesses. I couldn't believe how beautiful the weather was. It was absolutely perfect for trick-or-treat. In the low 60's and the kids got by without wearing coats. It was great! We got there right before 5pm when it started and the crowd wasn't too bad. It wasn't too long though before we had only gone a block down Grand River and the crowd quickly was filling the sidewalks. I think every year the crowd gets bigger and bigger.

Greg met up with the kids and I after he got out of work. Some of the stores had someone standing right outside the door with candy, other stores the kids had to go in. Greg and I took turns going in with the kids. I had taken the stroller in case Em didn't want to walk the whole way, but I didn't really need it. Little Miss Emmaline was all about the trick-or-treat this year. She didn't want in the stroller, and was having so much fun going from place to place. She knew exactly what to do too. Of course Evan is an old pro now and he was moving along quite fast, ready to get from one place to the next. Emmaline did a pretty good job keeping up with her big brother. She was so cute when she came out of the stores. She would pull the piece of candy out of her bag to show me each time what she got. Silly girl! Here are my peanuts off to trick-or-treat!


The East Lansing high school theater put on the "Land of Oz" at the local bed and breakfast downtown which was really cool. The bed and breakfast house backs up to an alley and there are bricks in the middle of the road that they "painted" with yellow chalk. Everyone had to follow the yellow brick road up to the backyard. At the entrance, they had students all dressed up as characters from the Wizard of Oz. As you proceeded into the house there were more characters throughout the house. Here's Em getting some candy from Dorothy.


There were lots of different costumes, but this year I didn't really see one that actually stood out as a wow! The costumes were kind of boring I thought. Your typical Spiderman, witches, and vampires. I may be a little prejudice since they are my kids, but I thought Evan and Em had a couple of the cuter costumes. I'm not the only one who thought that though because Em got a lot of compliments and some "look how cute she is" from the people passing out candy and the MSU students participating in "Safe Halloween." Everyone loved Evan's costume too, and once again he was a big hit with the "officials." Last year he was a hit with fireman and policeman in his fireman costume, and this year he was a hit with the policeman costume.

The MSU sororities and fraternities put on "Safe Halloween" for the kids where they kept to participate in games, they have cider/donuts, face painting, a fire truck the kids can sit in, and much more. Here's Evan checking out the fire truck. He was having such a great time. The fireman pretended with him that they were driving to a fire to rescue people. Evan thought this was pretty cool.

Here's Evan with "his" police car!

Here's Em enjoying some free popcorn from the MSU Greek students.

She also provided the entertainment for the students as she danced away to the music they were playing. The MSU students were all whispering to each other, "Look at her, isn't she so cute." She was even turning some heads of the guys, and they were telling me how adorable she was. I think I'll need to be keeping a close eye on her when she gets older! We had a great evening trick-or-treating and can't wait for Halloween night tomorrow! Thanks to the City of East Lansing and the MSU Greek students for providing great activities for the kids!