A Halloween Spooktacular Starring A Cheerleader, A Football Player, a Puppy Dog, and Two Aging Hippies

Warning: some nauseatingly cute photos to follow When you've got three small children, Halloween just doesn't start on Halloween. The schlepping of whiny children to nursery school parades and parties starts about a week before.

Our festivities started last Thursday, when Johanna had a parade at her private preschool. Teddy came along for company.

Of course, someone decided she was too important to actually have to WALK during the parade.

Finally she strutted down the hallway like the supermodel she is.

And when it came time for the group photo, she insisted on sitting right up in front and gazing off at the side with an I'm-so-bored-with-all-this-childish-fare look on her face.

The next day it was Teddy's turn to dress up for his toddler preschool party. Of course he completely freaked out and melted down when he learned that mommy couldn't be in the class photo.

Finally the big football player managed to pull it together and I managed to get one photo which didn't involve him crying or shoving his hand down his pants.

Later that afternoon, we schlepped everyone in costume over to the Long Ridge Firehouse for the annual Moms Club Halloween Party. Since Daddy's on paternity leave, he also got to attend. Which is EXACTLY how he wanted to be spending his Friday afternoon.

Behold those happy hippies and their children.

Holding hands....

And behold the overtired, irate puppy dog

Then, of course, there was the big day itself. Although half of Stamford still didn't have power after the big snow storm, Jo Jo's morning preschool parade and party was still on.

Teddy insisted on coming along and dressing up, too.

That's Jo Jo's favorite aide, Ms. Rosie, dressed as a crayon.

I have no idea who the kid is next to Jo Jo (I'd never seen him in preschool before) but he sure is cute.

Then, finally, the big night itself. There's nothing like getting everyone ready for a big night in the frigid outdoors and realizing that none of the houses in the neighborhood have power.

The Birthday book goes everywhere with him no, by the way. Including trick or treating on Halloween.

Some sort of weird pumpkin worship was going on here.

We didn"t last very long by the way. It was freezing, most of the houses had no power, so we were stumbling all over the place, and Teddy kept demanding diaper changes. But we gave it our best shot.