Halloween 2012

Halloween was interesting this year.  It was our first Halloween without Rick here.  Doing our festivities without him felt weird.  I woke up that morning feeling like something was stuck in my throat.  It didn't hurt, just felt weird.  When I looked in the mirror, my tonsils had white spots on them.  I thought it was weird because that usually means strep, but I didn't have any of the usual symptoms.  I had been having headaches for a couple of days and felt really rundown, but I thought that was because I was parenting alone.  Well, by mid-afternoon, the symptoms had started.  I was wondering how in the world I was going to make it through the very long, very eventful night ahead.  Thankfully, we were continuing our tradition of going trick-or-treating with friends.  That made it so much easier.  

I used to buy Halloween costumes for the kids each year when we had less children.  As we have added children, that has become really expensive.  I also have struggled with spending that kind of money for just one evening.  This year, at the beginning of Oct., I told the kids that they were going to have to come up with costumes on their own this year.  They could choose from the container of costumes that we already had, or they could put together their own.  I felt a little guilty, but also decided that this would be a good exercise for them.  I was really afraid that Halloween would come and I would have a kid crumpled in the floor in tears because they didn't have a costume.  That didn't happen at all.  They did it, and I am so proud of them.  

Laila got to dress up twice on Halloween.  First, at preschool, her class had a party.  She chose her Cinderella dress for this event.

 Trick-or-Treating at school

 I love how her tongue is sticking out as she paints glue on the balloon.

 Her pumpkin craft

 Throwing bean bags into this pumpkin was her favorite part of the party.

 Laila in the pumpkin patch in her classroom imagination station.

 After school, we rushed home to get everyone in their costumes, take pics, and head out to a special dinner.  Here are my little and not-so-little trick-or-treaters:

Lauren as a Pirate

 Isaiah as Spiderman

 Sam as Venom

 Abby as a Ninja

 Laila as a Pegasus, Unicorn, Pony Thing

 Cody has aged out of trick-or-treating so he went to a bball game after school with some friends and joined us later.

Our pumpkins

 Chipotle had a deal this year that we took full advantage of.  If you came in a costume, you got a burrito for $2.  I fed everyone(including me as a Cowgirl) for $12.  The really beautiful part is that almost everyone had leftovers making this an even better deal.  We got there just in time and didn't even have to wait in line.  It was perfect!

 For at least 5 years, we have been going to our friends', the Fowlers, to trick-or-treat.  It has become a tradition that our whole family enjoys.  This year, the Houles joined us.

Some of the girls

 Some of the boys

 The sunset as we were preparing to go out

 I just had to include these:

 The whole crew, ready to go!

 It turned out that Dave and Chris took the boys and Laura, Mandy, and I took the girls.  It was perfect. As always, the kids' favorite house was the house that gives out sodas.

This was my favorite house!

 My handy dandy tip for the night was that I had Laila and Isaiah wear their jammies under their costumes.  Then, when we were done, they were ready for bed.  

Laila and her loot

I didn't get pics of everyone's candy, but just imagine all of this times 5.  Yes, we have enough candy to  last a LONG time!  (Another handy dandy tip, I will take some of the mini candy bars, chop them up and add them to cookie dough or brownies.  There are also lots of Thanksgiving and Christmas recipes that call for candies like these turkeys or these mice or this new one that I think is so cute!  We use some of our candy for those.)  The kids loved pouring it all out and trading with each other.

I survived the evening and had a really rough night ahead of me.  I was up most of the night with an excruciatingly sore throat, fever, headache, nausea, and achy body.  I was miserable.  The really cool part about Rick being 8 hours ahead is that he and I were able to talk on the phone at 4 AM.  It was good to hear his voice, but oh, how I wished he was home the next day!