Happy Halloween!

Halloween ... one of the very best days of the year for kids.  And this year was no exception.  The boys had a great time and got way too much candy!!!

 

 

Family Halloween Party

Tonight we had our annual family Halloween party ... what very well may be our last one in this house ... sniff sniff.  It was so much fun!  The weather was absolutely beautiful, the costumes and the food was great, we had a fire going in the backyard and a fog machine in the front.  The kids ate doughnuts off strings and broke open a pumpkin pinata.  It was so nice to spend time with everyone and just hang out and enjoy being together.

 

 

Amy & Ian made some amazing cupcakes that would put Martha Stewart to shame.  They also made Brandon a very special cake for his birthday.  It looked just like a real human heart, so much so that Brandon wouldn't touch it. :)

 

Witches & Wizards

Tonight we took our annual trip to Gardner Village to see the Witches. 

Harry, Ron & Draco had a great time, as always!

 

 

Trick-or-Treating

We had some serious pirates, out to get some serious candy tonight!!

We all started out together and I had planned to take Kyle around a little bit and then when he got tired I'd take him home and he and I could hand out candy at our house while Dave trailed Brandon & Eric as they ran all over the neighborhood, filling their pillow cases with candy.  But Kyle just kept on going and a lot of the time he was the one leading the way.  I kept saying, once we get around this corner I will take him home but he was having so much fun and didn't want to stop so we kept going.  He stayed out the whole time until his little pumpkin bucket was so full it was bending under the weight and I thought for sure the handle was going to come off! 

Dave & I have some observations about Halloween now vs. Halloween when we were kids.  First, we would plan out our route in advance to ensure we hit all the best neighborhoods.  And we would seriously trick-or-treat for 4+ hours, staying out as long as we possibly could to get as much candy as possible, running the entire time!  Kids these days go for like an hour and then they complain that their bag is getting heavy and they want to go home, or they are getting cold.  We think that kids these days are just so used to having things given to them that they don't want to have to work for it.  And I know that my kids get plenty of treats on a regular basis so it wasn't like it was for us when we were kids and treats were not so readily available at our houses.  The other thing that we noticed is that kids come away from trick-or-treating with SO MUCH CHOCOLATE!!  When we were kids chocolate was super exciting to get because most of the time we got little Dum Dum suckers, Smarties, Milk Duds and Dots (Yuck!).  Kids these days are so spoiled!!

But despite all that, our kids came away from the night with far too much candy!  And to make matters worse, I had so much candy to give out to trick-or-treaters and wasn't home for most of the night like I had planned to give it out so now we are just inundated with treats at our house.  Thank goodness I am at work during the day and not at home being tempted by all this yummy chocolate!!

Family Halloween Party

Tonight we had our annual Family Halloween Party at our house.  It was a great party.  We all went as pirates.  We even picked up a fog machine and some spooky music to make the party even more fun which the kids especially loved. 

The kids got to bob for apples, play outside some since the weather wasn't too cold and of course ... eat doughnuts off a string which they look forward to each year.

And as always, we celebrated Brandon's birthday as well.  He loves that bit of the party the best I think! :)

Thanks to everyone who came!  We had a great time!

Witches & Pirates

In keeping with our annual tradition, we went over to Gardner Village to see the witches and took pictures of the boys in their Halloween costumes. Aren't they the coolest pirates ever!!!

Trick-or-Treat

Since Halloween is on Sunday this year most of the kids in our neighborhood did their trick-or-treating tonight. And of course ... rain rain rain!

But the boys had fun. Kyle had a little identity crisis, deciding what side he wanted to be on.

Eric ran so fast to cover as much ground as he could to fill up his pillowcase with candy.

Brandon's friend AJ trick-or-treated with the boys. Brandon told me a couple days ago that they were going to "hit a few neighborhoods" and so they were ready to get going as soon as possible!

Because of the rain, I didn't let Kyle stay out too long but he really didn't care about the rain ... he loved trick-or-treating. I did finally talk him into going home by telling him that we could actually go home and EAT the candy in his bucket. He was so funny when we get home he dug right in to his candy and sat there with a tootsie roll in his mouth and a sucker in each hand.