Halloween 2012

 October was once again a crazy busy month for our family. Between soccer games and practices, vacation, Halloween and all the celebrations and being room and soccer mom it was sheer insanity. I still love that we managed to get in most of our traditions despite the busyness.

Decorating pumpkins and roasting the seeds:

 This year we chose to do an angry bird and spider pumpkin. I think we can handle a couple more pumpkins next year since the older kids are way more into it now than in years past.

We spend a Sunday evening decorating our spooky gingerbread house:

Costumes: This year I wanted the girls to dress up as glam-witches. I had an idea for their hats and decided to build the costumes around my idea. I let them each pick a color and paired it with black for their costumes. 

Unfortunately Emery was having NONE of the costume wearing. It took several tries to get her tutu on her and she wanted NOTHING to do with her hat. Boo! I ended up wearing her hat during our party going.

Close up of the hats. I found mini witch hats on Etsy and embellished the heck out of them. They turned out SO SO SO cute and we got lots of compliments on their costumes. My original plan was to take the hats apart and use the different bows but  I've decided I'm going to keep them together to use them for Halloween decorations 

Carter and Allen as BYU super fans. I was so so grateful that Carter chose something really simple for me to put together.

Our crew pre ward party/trunk or treating:

I made the kids our traditional Halloween lunch. This is really minimal effort and makes them ridiculously happy! It's a mummy dog, ghost cheese stick, jack-o-lantern orange, Halloween peanut butter balls and a mini can of vampire sunkist.

 I was in charge of Makenna's class party this year and was so busy I hardly had a second to take any pictures. We had 5 stations that kids rotated through - pumpkin painting, donut on a string eating contest, Harvest bingo, decorating pumpkin sugar cookies and musical chairs. We also had tons of yummy food and goodie bags. It was really stressful pulling it all together but her class had a really fun time and I learned a lot for the next party! Kenna decorating her sugar cookie:

 

I also had a chance to help at Addie's school party. Her school has an actual pumpkin patch on property and each child was able to pick their own pumpkin. It was so cute. They did lots of crafts, read books, sang Halloween songs and had treats. It was so fun to see her in her element!

 We attended a total of 8 different Halloween parties and I was exhausted by the time Halloween night rolled around. I was so grateful when a neighbor invited us over for dinner after Trick or Treating with a few other families in our area. It was a really fun and low key way to end such a busy holiday month (I swear Halloween goes on ALL month). My kids got way too much candy that I'm sure will be around here for months. We still have some of LAST years candy stowed away that I need to get rid of.  Happy Halloween!