pre-halloween.

every year, before halloween, our church has a party.

we call it 'trunk-or-treat' because after a traditional chili and cornbread dinner,

and the little ones parading across the stage in costume,

the kiddies take their pumpkin buckets outside to the parking lot and go car to car 

{or trunk to trunk}

trick-or-treating.

it's always a big hit,

and why shouldn't it be...

after all, it's like halloween on steroids for the kids.

they have to walk all of 2 feet to the next trunk...

and their bags are filled with gobs of candy in about 5 minutes flat.

i'd say that sure beats walking for a couple hours to fill up a bag.

or maybe it's not better...

i'll let you decide.

every once in a while, our family decides to dress in themes.

this year was no exception.

although...it took my sister-in-law and i some coercing to get the husband 

and father-in-law to wear this years choice in costume.

why you ask?

we decided to be rats.

the adult 'costumes' included a gray shirt, 

which i added the acronym: R.O.U.S. to...

funny right?!

well...only if you have seen 'the princess bride' it is.

and if you haven't seen the movie:

1) stop reading and go watch it now.

2) the acronym stands for "rodents of unusual size".

{see, a group of adults dressed as ROUS'...funny, i know.}

please note: clearly my sister-in-law and i wouldn't make good politicians because 

as you can see from the pictures below...

my father-in-law wouldn't be photographed in the costume 

and my nephew refused to wear it all together.

c'est la vie...

at least the baby girls look a.d.o.r.a.b.l.e.

oh-- and you can bet there will be more baby-rat pictures to come after halloween.

...preferably ones that are not passed a specific little rat's bedtime.

...ones where she actually looks happy.

... and ones that aren't so grainy 

due to taking pictures of pictures 

because a certain larger rat forgot their camera.