A Happy Halloween

We had such a fun Halloween this year!! I couldn't believe how well it all went. I am really grateful that everyone was so happy and so well-behaved all day- it made it that much more enjoyable for me as a Mom. To know that all the extra time, energy and effort was well worth it. So anyway- here's to another Halloween! And here's how ours went:

For Breakfast we had orange pancakes which nobody ate. I think because they were so excited for Halloween. I really couldn't believe how excited they all were. Brad woke up saying, "wet's go trick-or-treating! wet's go trick-or-treating!" They were bouncing off the walls (and this is BEFORE all the sugar).

Then, I had the privilege of watching Kelly's cute little morning Kindergarten Parade. As you can see my camera was giving me trouble again. It wouldn't zoom!!! So I did have to crop some, but they just don't look good at all- anyway.... there's cute little Kelly at the front of her line. She was a pink cowgirl, riding a pink unicorn/horse. Kelly remembered the unicorn that Charity used last year and thought it would go perfectly with her cowgirl costume- what a cutie- she looked so cute.

I took this one so you could see how well done her teacher's costume was!! HOLY MOLY she looked just like the evil Queen on Snow White- it was kinda creepy!

After the parade I got to stay at the school and help with her class party. Special thanks to Leah for watching the boys so that I could. It was so neat to be able to see Kelly in her classroom element. (if only I'd had a second to take a picture!) She's such a good little girl. She told me afterward that she loved the party and had so much fun and that the reason she had so much fun was because I was there!! How cute is that! I do wish I could help out in my girls' classes more, this was a neat experience.

Charity wore her costume to school, but her class was unable to participate in the school parade because there are 2 people (yes, 2 out of 28 people can change Halloween for the whole class!) who don't celebrate Halloween. Charity's teacher was really bummed about it for the class, so she sneakily "walked them down the hall to do something" while the Kindergartners were having their parade :) (again, my camera was not functioning properly or I could have gotten a picture of her too!) Funny enough, Charity had no idea that this was equivalent to a parade, and frankly wasn't all that put out that they didn't get to do the parade or a "Halloween" Party. Hats off to Miss Groom who pulled that one off. She managed to convince those cute little First Graders that it was only fair that they not celebrate Halloween since those 2 kids don't. I think I had a harder time with it than Charity did. It really bummed me out for her- this is the 2nd year in a row. But all in all it wasn't that big a deal. Even Miss Groom still dressed up in her Cow Costume, and they did have a "Fall" Party, so I'm really trying to figure out what the difference is :) Whatever :) Like I said- she did a great job at convincing Charity that it wasn't a big deal- too bad she couldn't have done a better job on me :) Just wait till Christmas- that's gonna drive me up the wall I think :) HA! jk. (sort of)

So then, for lunch, we had these cute little Mummy Dogs. Which I totally just did for me since my kids NEVER eat the breaded dogs, but sure enough, they surprised me and actually ate it all! Guess we just needed them to have eyes and in Luke's words "hats" and they are suddenly appealing :) I thought they were kinda cute :)

I made homemade chili bowls for dinner thinking it would be the perfect pre-trick-or-treating dinner, but of course everyone was so excited they really didn't even touch them (what a WASTE!), but who can blame them really :) They were so quick to get their costumes on. I am really starting to love Halloween. This was a really fun year for me.

Luke was a Pirate

Noah was Batman

Charity was a witch

Kelly was a cowgirl

Bradley was a Lion

Charity and I had a lot of fun trying to dye her hair the night before and the morning of. (I totally didn't even think about it until then and didn't want to have to drive all the way to the store, so we looked into some homemade ideas) Just so you know Kool-Aid does not work on brown hair, and if you get crazy enough to try food coloring- it's VERY MESSY and you should definitely use gloves :) But it was really a lot of fun. Felt like back when Wendy and I made our honey and peanut butter face masks :) Who thinks of this stuff :) It did wash right out with the dish soap though- thanks for that idea Big Charity. Fun fun fun. Thanks again Paulette for the cute witch costume!

This was such a cute costume- thanks Paulette- he was so attached to it by the end of the day!

This is Noah saying goodbye to the big kids- he and I got to pass out the candy to the trick-or-treaters. What fun that is! It was really fun to be back in a neighborhood where it is safe to go trick-or-treating door-to-door. And fun to hear the doorbell ring every two minutes. It kind of drove Noah nuts while he was trying to eat though :) I had to keep getting up :)

Nate took the older 4 all trick-or-treating, and they all had a lot of fun- including Nate, I think he loves that more than most dads. He comes home and tells me all the cute things our kids did while begging for candy.

And now to dump out your candy and stare at it all in awe.

They really should change the name of Halloween to "Free Candy Night" then they wouldn't need to change the name of the party to a "Fall" Party, it could be "Free Candy Night" Party!! That's all it really is right?? I just kept thinking that this is probably the last year that Charity would not be into tricking her younger siblings out of their candy- I could see her eyeballing everyone else's stash :) I remember those days so well!! Brent and I convincing Heidi and Steve to trade something like a tootsie roll for a king size candy bar!! Those were the days....

(snickers....mmmmmmmm)

Lukey was thrilled with the Playdoh! Luke is a funny little creature when he is trick-or-treating (and at the trunk-or treat as well) he's very slow. He has to look at every single pumpkin/decoration/candy bowl that makes noise. Touch it, admire it, talk about it over and over, just whatever to slow him down. Then, when he is given a candy that he knows he likes, he makes sure he keeps it in his hand. This slows down the walking, and the getting of more candy. If someone hands him something he likes better than the one in his hand though, he will replace it and put the old one in his bag. It's quite the system. He's the great candy connoisseur. He might like candy more than me- if that's possible.

Bradley was way cute with his candy. He is SO SWEET and SO GENEROUS. He kept giving Grandma Hatch candy. Whenever I would say that I liked a kind that he had in his pile, he would give it to me. It was really just sweet of him. He likes everyone to be able to enjoy Free Candy Night as much as him I think. It really made it hard for me to want to steal his candy when he went to sleep like I usually do :)

I think Kelly really is in it just for the dressing up :) As much as she likes the candy- she doesn't really seem to care a whole lot about it after Free Candy Night is over. She enjoys all the nice compliments she gets on her costume the most. She kept telling me how much everyone liked her costume :) And she deserves all the credit for it too- it was mostly her idea- thanks again Meg, for the cute hat and boots!!

I think they all got plenty of candy this year!! What a fun night!

Then we all headed over to (and met Grandma Hatch at) the ward Trunk-or-treat at 8:00. The kids were pretty tired when they got home from only an hour and a half of trick-or-treating so I wasn't sure they would even want to go to the TRUNK-or-treat, but they sure showed me. They were EVERYWHERE at Trunk-or-Treat, it was so hard to keep track of them all. We all enjoyed donuts and hot chocolate, and finally got home around 10:00 pm.

Luke and Bradley sitting on the back bumper

Charity and her friend at the Trunk-or-treat

What a night! It took a while to wind down, but they all had a good night's sleep! I say "they" because I ended up staying up until 3:00 with my night owl mom who works nights and is used to staying up all night. We did Yogalates at 3:00 in the morning!! It's been a while since I did anything that crazy!! And I think the last time I did that, it was me keeping her up against her will. But it was actually kinda fun (until I woke up 6 hours later and couldn't even think straight all day!). But anyway :) Good times!!

Noah fell asleep while we were doing Yogalates- he looked so stinkin cute.

Hope you all had as nice of a Halloween as we did!!

Now on to Thanksgiving!!!