Halloween day started out for us by SCRAMBLING to get kids in costumes and on time to school so that they could participate in their school costume parade. Unfortunately reality was that we only got 3 out of 4 kids in costumes and we were 10 minutes late to school which was a logistical nightmare to try to find out where the kids needed to go since their classes were already parading through the halls. Ahhh. But Brans and Harry looked so dang cute all dressed up and we did manage to eventually find both classes parading around and get them in line. Whew. We loved seeing all the kids, friends, and neighbors dressed up too. What a neat tradition.
After that I returned home but then learned that my dear friend who was in charge of her daughters class Halloween party had been up all night sick sick sick. So I quickly volunteered to go in her place and got the kids all loaded up again for a 2nd trip to Barnett. We had so much fun though and were in charge of playing Halloween bingo with smarties and pencils for prizes while other Mom helpers did other activities and games. It made me anxious for the time I can help out more in the kids schools when I’m not so crazy busy running after my babies at home. But I love this time with them and know it will pass by much quicker than I think.
Afterwards we needed to run and get my car registered as apparently I’ve been driving around for a MONTH with expired plates. Whoops. Totally spaced that one. And since we were leaving for Yellowstone the next day – it really couldn’t wait. So off we went. That luckily went well (we passed) but then later we discovered we left Harry’s backpack in the waiting room requiring another trip back out. Ugh.
The rest of the day was spent frantically packing and trying to get ready for our Yellowstone trip. We wanted to do our pumpkins that night too – so in lieu of passing out candy every few minutes to darling trick or treaters – we opted to just put out a bowl of candy with a sign saying “please take two” so that we could pack, eat dinner, and do our pumpkins uninterrupted. It worked well until we realized that some of the trick or treaters were just dumping the entire bowl of candy into their bags. Sad. So unfortunately we ended up running out of candy at about 7:45 and had to turn our lights out. And that was after we put out around 6 or 7 BIG bags of candy that should have lasted all night. It gave us an opportunity to have a teaching moment with the boys though about being greedy, and forgiving those who wrong us. Below are some pics from our crazy day/night.
Harry dressed as a cowboy! He loved his mustache and goatee and wouldn’t let me wash it off his face for 2 days! Silly boy!
Adalynn decided to switch things up and went as Tinkerbell at Mommy’s request – even though her dress was way too little (for a 6-9 month old). This made Mommy feel better about buying it and at least getting one use out of it. đ
Branson also changed his Halloween attire from a Werewolf to a clown seeing as the school didn’t allow masks. He sure made a cute clown and he had fun wearing fun colorful things from Mommy’s dress up closet. He loved getting his face painted too and also wanted to leave it on for several days.
That evening after dinner (which unlike tradition wasn’t meal in a pumpkin) we decided to do our pumpkins. We had one for everyone (except Adalynn) and each got to decorate our own. Harry and Brans opted to “draw” on their pumpkins while Dawson and I opted to “carve” ours. Daddy opted to do nothing with his but helped us de-gut the pumpkins and put candles in them for us. Dawson chose to do a scary bat while I chose the “throw up pumpkin.” The kids loved mine.
Its was easier to see my vomiting pumpkin in the light. So funny.
All in all it was a lovely day – despite the craziness and we were able to get most everything done that we needed to for our trip. We sure are blessed!