Since daylight savings 'fall back' isn't until this weekend (because of that darn new law), it took an extra hour for dusk and the girls were anxious to get out on the trick-or-treating route (I would guess other mother's across the US were cursing those lawmakers Halloween night). To pass the time, they decided to play with their new kittens outside and teach them how fun the swing set was.

You can guess who was having more fun with that.

And G. has been trying really hard to teach Dulce how to go for a walk on a leash. I don't have the heart to tell her about the reality of training a cat ...

I put a stop to the idea of teaching the kittens about the slide. I thought the swing was more than enough for everyone.

Once dusk set in the girls were in their costumes and out the door. We live in a good neighborhood for trick-or-treating with a low-traffic, one-mile loop.

G. was a Renaissance Queen and L. was St. Lucia, which was prompted by the latest American Girl catalog (Kirsten celebrates the Swedish holiday for the saint and had a page spread with a costume like this).

The girls like going door-to-door, not just for the candy but to also visit with everyone's animals. They know nearly every dog and cat in our neighborhood, most by name. So Halloween is a time to catch up on each of their animal friends with at the door chit-chat. I usually have to remind them to wrap up and get moving again, much to the amusement of my neighbors.

Of course, the girls can never remember any of our neighbor's names but that's clearly not part of their agenda. It's all about the animals for them.