*Halloween and Goodbye to Shelby

     Our Halloween celebrations started off with Kelsey's Joy School Halloween party on Oct. 27, 2011. 

L-R: Jimmie Winder, Gina Bates, Torstun Grover, Xzavier Ochs, Kelsey Hardy, and Sarah Ballard

Kelsey and her best friend, Torstun

They made witch hats out of ice cream cones and since Kelsey was a witch that day, she decided it should go on her head. :)

     The next day was the costume parade at school.

Mackenzie with her best friend, Vadie Grover.

Kelsey decided to be a cheerleader to watch the parade.

In case you aren't sure, Haylee is Hermione from the Harry Potter books.  Here she is with her best friend Grace Cannon.

Natalee went as a Renaissance princess.

     The next day was bittersweet.  Our dog Shelby had been giving us quite a bit of trouble lately.  She began to break out of the yard regularly months earlier.  We bought an electric fence and a shock collar and that worked great for awhile.  Then we got Annabelle.  Annabelle just ignored the shock of the collar and would go wherever she wanted.  I don't know if that influenced Shelby at all, but all of a sudden, she didn't seem to care about getting shocked anymore.  She started breaking out again.  The only way we could keep her in the yard was to tie her up, and we felt like being tied up all the time was no way for a dog to live.  Finally, we just didn't know what to do and decided maybe we'd better find another home for her.  Besides, at this point we were more sure that we would eventually move into town and we didn't think a city-sized yard would work as well for her.  Well, she just happened to break out again and go to a nearby house where one of her siblings lived.  The family there brought her back to us and told us they had been thinking about getting another Great Pyrenees if we ever decided to rehome her.  We told them that we actually had been thinking about it as we couldn't figure out how to contain her anymore.

     The day of the school Halloween carnival, we arranged to bring Shelby over to them.  Their dog was from the same parents but a year or two older.  Her name is Jody.  It was sad to see our puppy go but we felt good that she was going to such a good family and we knew she was going to be well taken care of.  The funny thing was that she kept breaking out to visit us right at first.  But she eventually started staying there.  It was hard because we had thought we might visit her since she was so close.  But we realized quickly that visiting her made it harder on her so we felt like we should stop.

 

Natalee and Shelby, saying goodbye.

Shelby and her sister Jody.

Next stop, Halloween carnival!

Haylee running one of the booths.  Her friend Grace was helping, you just can't see her in this picture.

Natalee doing the cake walk.

Nathan trying to spin the wheel.

     We managed to squeeze in a quick Halloween piano recital after the end of the day!

 

     Finally, Halloween day arrived.  We started off by going to the church for the trunk or treat.  It had to end early because Halloween was on a Monday night so activities can't go past 6pm.  That was perfect!  After the trunk or treat, we stopped by a local Haunted House and went and did some trick or treating in Grandma Poetschlag's neighborhood.  And of course we had to stop by Grandma and Grandpa Moffitt's house.

Nathan, a.k.a. "a cow"

Haylee, a.k.a. Hermione Granger

Kelsey the cheerleader

Princess Natalee

Supergirl!! (a.k.a. Mackenzie, but don't tell anyone her secret identity!)

Trunk or Treat!!

Our friend and neighbor, Melinda Creager, went as Little Red Riding Hood.  She needed her dog, Doc, to play the big bad wolf dressed as "Granny" so we brought Doc to the Trunk or Treat for her. :)

Natalee at the Haunted House we went to.