Halloween

Every November 1st I wake up and think, "I'm SO glad Halloween is over." It's stressful for mothers, trying to make it fun and memorable for our kids, trying to avoid costume malfunctions and meltdowns and late nights on a sugar high.

But as I look back at the pictures I think, "What's the big deal? Why do I get so stressed? It's a fun time for our family despite the drama. I think I'll do it again next year."

Mack changed his mind about his costume several times. First he wanted to be a bat, then a pirate, and finally settled on an Army guy. The only Army costume I could find was a size 6-8 so we had to do a lot of rolling up. He wore it for several days before and several days after Halloween. He especially liked the helmet.

Amelia spied a cute fairy costume the first time we looked at Walmart and was set to go about a month before Halloween. As an extra bonus her Bogs matched her outfit perfectly! (By the way, if you're looking for some good winter boots, Bogs are the very best thing we've ever owned. They are pricey, but SO worth it.)

Amelia was probably the most excited about the blue spray we got for her hair.

We got super lucky with the weather. Usually the kids have to wear lots of layers to stay warm in the 30-40 degree weather, but this Halloween it was around 60 when we started trick-or-treating. I was amazed that Amelia could get away with wearing just her dance leotard.

Our cute kitty Anna was pretty interested in all the festivities. The rest of the cats (5 more!) watched from a distance.

Lily was not with us when we started trick-or-treating. She's a cool 5th grader and stopped by the house after school just briefly enough to grab her costume and go to her friend's house for a friend dinner followed by trick-or-treating.

Amelia helped Mack until he got a hang of things.

Then she was like, "You're on your own, dude!"

We caught up with Lily and her friends a little later (I love how I knew we would run into her because there's only about 10 or 12 streets in the main part of town!)

Striking a pose by the Catholic Church (yes, we actually have one in town!)

Lily started to run off with her friends again and her Dad told her she better come back for a picture with her brother and sister or she would be in big trouble with her mother! We bought Lily a pioneer outfit near the end of 4th grade for a rendezvous her class had up in Star Valley. When I bought it I told her she had to wear it for Halloween, too. But she wouldn't put the bonnet on for me. Stinker.

As it started to get darker we realized we'd forgotten the glow sticks and a masquerade type mask that matched Amelia's costume. Sadly, it had gotten left on the lawn where we were spraying the blue hair goop and some trick-or-treaters stepped on it and broke it. There were some tears shed but I promised to buy Amelia another one next year. I refilled the candy bowl, broke out the glow sticks, and the mask was forgotten. As you can imagine, Mack was pretty thrilled to have a glowing sword.

Amelia was totally peeved that she could not run off and go trick-or-treating with her friends without her parents around. We found one group of friends, siblings, but Amelia threw a fit because she wanted to leave the group with just her friend. So I made her Dad take her home. Then I found another one of her friends that was trick-or-treating with just her mom and little brother and Amelia decided that was acceptable. After a knocking a few doors all the drama was forgotten and she was having a great time.

We finished the night by going to Amelia's teacher's house which is about 10 minutes out of town. He promised all his students that if they came out to his house he would give them a whole big handful of eyeballs. Awesome!

When we got home we were greeted by Annie snooping around the jack-o-lanterns. So cute!

I guess I'll try to have a better attitude next year. :)