There's never a dull moment in a house with children. And this Halloween played true to this.
Since October began, we've been gearing up for this fun, candy-filled holiday. The costumes were finally decided on and purchased at the last minute. Thank goodness I found websites that had exactly what they wanted. (Some of you may be wondering why someone who likes to create so many other things didn't make her children's costumes. Well…sewing and making clothes is one of the few crafts I find NOT enjoyable. Plus, I don't own a sewing machine. And you would think with a mother who has perfected this art that I would've gotten a little of this?…nope. So we get those costumes each year from THE STORE. I think my kids are okay with that. When they start letting me paint their faces, THEN I'll be able to put a little of my creativity into it. That is something I LOVE to do. But for now, the store costumes can do Star Wars WAY better than I can.)
Dad took the boys to the pumpkin farm last week (for a school fund-raising function). They had a blast with friends – running through the corn maze, and picked up our big pumpkins.
We carved them on Tuesday night. I love our tradition…Dad does the scooping and Mom leads the carving! Luke isn't quite into the hard work of sawing into the pumpkin, but he at least got through half of his design before I took over to finish. And I do have to give him a little more credit, because he also helped me when it came to carving mine.
Nicholas has always loved carving his pumpkins and completed his all on his own again this year.
Dad didn't get a pumpkin this year. It's either because he didn't want to scoop another, or maybe he knows that displays and designs look better when items come in odd numbers?! Either way, we have 3 lovely (and scary) pumpkins.
Wednesday night was all about getting the class treats ready. I pulled together the containers I had done at my Tricks & Treats class for gifts for the teachers (Luke has one, but Nick has three teachers this year – so 4 containers were perfect!) and filled them with yummy chocolate. Then the boys helped me package their goodies. This time the roles were reversed…Luke LOVED putting together these fun gifts and stuck to the task the whole time AND with enthusiasm. But Nicholas was a "crab apple" and complained about stamping and punching and taping…you name it. Not sure what was up with him that night. Nevertheless, we got them done, and the boys loved that they had gifts to bring to school.
Thursday night we made sure we had everything together to bring to school – treats AND what would be worn. With my kids being in 3rd and 4th grade, they could no longer wear their costumes to school – just fun shirts, hats, glasses, etc. That is only something they let the Kindergarten through 2nd graders do at our school. (And I know a LOT of schools don't allow costumes at all, but we live close to the city of Anoka and attend the Anoka school district. Anoka is known for its Halloween festivities and claims to be the "Halloween Capital of the World.") Nicholas found a fun hat we had in our costume box and some matching rubber band bracelets he had made. Luke didn't find anything funny, but he wore his orange striped shirt…backwards.
This is them with their friend, Jayla on Friday morning getting ready to go to school. It was a happy and sad morning for my boys. Jayla had been coming to our house in the morning from time to time so her mom could get into work early. But Friday was our last morning with her. She is moving this weekend and won't be attending our school anymore. (We will miss her.)
Another bummer part of Friday is later that evening Nicholas fell out of our tree in the front yard.
He got a nasty scrape on the top of his head and lost a patch of hair with it. He also hurt his leg pretty badly. So I tended to him a lot that evening, Luke came and gave him lots of hugs and kisses, and he slept in my bed that night (because he needed his mom, but also because I wanted to make sure he was okay). My poor baby. (He wouldn't let me take a photo of him.)
Thankfully he woke up with the energy to go on. Halloween day kicked off with preparations for the Anoka Halloween parade. This year we got into town a little earlier and got great parking about 10 blocks away (even though our chairs and blankets had been out reserving our spots on the street since Thursday afternoon – thanks to my sister, Renée!).
The parade was fun! (It is every year.) But this year they enjoyed it with their cousin, Robbie AND their friend, Logan. All of us sat together and had a great time. The kids gathered up a good amount of candy, too!
It was a very cold and wet afternoon, so we were exhausted when we got home. But within a few hours, the boys were ready to go gather EVEN MORE candy. I had them quick pose for photos, and then Dad took them out with their friend, Carter for Trick-or-Treating as it was beginning to get dark.
Here is the haul they brought back! I think our candy will last us until Easter.
The icing on the cake?…Carter got to stay for a sleep-over! This was a Halloween to remember for sure.
