What a treat!

At ease, soldier! You've got a Halloween princess waiting for her carriage to take her trick-or-treating.

As I look back on Halloween 2011, I think I'll remember it as a year that was fun and easy. There was no major drama preparing costumes. The weather was decent (No Halloween blizzard as was the case 20 years ago, which all the local media were reflecting on.) The kids are now big enough that no strollers are needed. And with the exception of two short piggy-back rides for Sydney toward the end of the route, she held her own with her brother and friends Carver and Ethan.

Ahhh... the princess's carriage has arrived. In the form of a mini-van driven by Carver and Ethan's dad.

We looped around the block of our development and that was enough for the princess, ninja, army soldier and Twins player.

Back at our house, AJ complained that his legs were tired from too much walking. Granted, even riding in the mini-van, the kids had fairly lengthy treks up some driveways, but I couldn't resist reminding AJ how easy he had it.

"When I was little, we walked everywhere on Halloween," I told him. "If we didn't want to walk that far, we didn't go there."

"Why?" AJ  asked in confusion. "They had cars when you were little."