All Hallow's Eve

 Alrighty, Halloween! I love Halloween. It is chalk full of random fun... like carving pumpkins. Where in the world did this tradition come from?! I don't care, I love it. Plus, candles burning inside a pumpkin smell so good. And by the way, this post is all over the place with pictures out of order, so for journal keeping sake, I will include around the time all of the Halloween activity goodness went down.

A few days before Halloween I realized that we hadn't even had time to go on our annual pumpkin patch trip to pick out pumpkins! For shame. So we headed to the grocery store down the street. It was just as fun, I promise (I had to convince some of the kid's of that, and when convincing didn't work, I just told them it was that or nothing, so.... you can see below what choice they made.) Anyway, it was fun. Andy was busy with homework all night so unfortunately I was hanging solo for the carving fun.

 We had a blast, cleaned and carved some lovely pumpkins, topped off the evening with hot chocolate and donuts, and called it a night. Good, good times.

The night before Halloween, these little lovelies were left on our doorstep. So cute! And delicious.

Halloween morning was a little crazy. We were up at 6:30 AM to make sure everyone was looking their Halloween best with full makeup and ready for the school parade. Loved it.

 The kid's choir also sang some fun Halloween songs.

And this creepy 10-foot-tall Frankenstein walked around terrifying all of the preschoolers who were sitting with the parents, ha!

I had a fun time helping with Jonah's class Halloween party (I was in charge of spooky musical chairs) and after school we headed on a few errands and picked up some freebies along the way. I found a list someone had posted on facebook of all the places giving away free stuff for Halloween to people who were dressed in costumes. A few of the places were right by some of the stores I needed to go to (last minute stuff for Magnus' birthday party) so some of the kids that wanted to tag along came and got loaded up on even more sugar. We got a free cupcake from the Sweet Tooth Fairy as well as a free Jamba Juice. Yum yum!

After our traditional pizza dinner, we touched up the makeup, grabbed some sacks, snapped a couple pics, and we were off!

 We met up with some friends and swapped a few kids. The girl's headed off to a girls only group while I wrangled all of the boys.

 Magnus had never been trick-or-treating before. We didn't take him the last 2 years, so this was finally his year. And okay, I am not usually one to gush about the cuteness that is my kids, but I cannot even tell you how stinkin' adorable he was. He was so excited that everyone was just handing him candy, and he was so thankful! He told every single person, "twick-o-tweat!" and as soon as that candy plopped into his bucket, he looked up with a big grin and said, "Tank you!" And every time, without fail as he was walking down the porch, he would turn around and say, "Happy Halloween!" It was darling. I couldn't get over his cuteness in that little dragon costume (that he finally agreed to wear when I told him he would get candy)

Andy met up with us after class and came around with us the rest of the time. So much fun.

The kid's were out of school the next day, so we came home and ate candy and popped popcorn. We turned on a scary movie (Roald Dahl's "Witches") and got ready to have the pants scared off of us. I feel asleep after approximately 2 minutes and was shaken awake by Jonah telling me that this movie was way too scary. Baron was almost in tears. I didn't remember it being so scary, but I guess it was? So off it went and on came a Curious George Halloween. Haha, much better. After that, it was time for brushing teeth (not really, we skipped that) and bed.

The next morning (which also happened to be Magnus' birthday, more on that later!) I came down to kids eating/sorting candy.

Some weirdo gave away taco sauce...

I get tired of all the junk kids eat, and since they have gotten bigger, they bring home more and more Halloween candy every year because they have the stamina to trick-or-treat much longer. I usually just let them eat it, but this year I thought I'd offer them money to let me buy it. They all thought that was an awesome idea. I let them pick out their favorites and then we weighed it. I gave them a dollar a pound. They each got $3. Happy mom, happy kids. They still had some candy, they earned some money, and I didn't have to worry about a ton of wrappers and rotten teeth.

I just have to worry about 12 pounds of candy that is sitting in my closet. What should I do with it?

 And that was our Happy Halloween!

I also had to add these few photos from my mom's fun Halloween party that she throws every year. It was a few weeks before Halloween. We always eat yummy food, play fun games, and watch scary movies. It is so much fun. My mom and dad don't do anything half-way, which always makes it even better.

 I made homemade donuts for dessert. We had powdered, cinnamon sugar, maple glazed and chocolate glazed. Yum yum.

Thanks grandma and papa!

And last but certainly not least, I give to you.... The Mario Brothers:

Andy and I went to an adult Halloween party with friends at our neighbors the weekend before Halloween. It is always so much fun with delicious food, fun games, and great company. Also, hilarious costumes. Can't beat a night like that!

Happy Halloween! I hope yours was fun, safe, and happy!