Happy Halloween!

You know all those neat Pinterest ideas regarding homemade Halloween decorations? Well, this year I was totally going to be one of those Moms. I'd been saving milk jugs for weeks to make Ghost Lanterns for the sidewalk, purchased streamers as the last needed item for my door Monster, and pulled down the indoor decorations from the attic. And then my family got sick. And as soon as one got well another came down with something. And Nate found himself insanely busy with overtime at work, teaching two nights a week, prepping for those classes/exams, grading those homeworks/exams, traveling for work, and working more on the edits to the PE book the group he is part of is making. And so the day before Halloween found my house with not a decoration in sight. Frankly, I was too tired and worn out from a month of solo parenting to care. (I need to give props to Nate at this point, though, because even as insanely busy as he was he made sure that whatever spare minutes he had were spent with the kids. This guy is a great Dad!) My sister graciously took Abby with her to carve pumpkins when her family got together to do so, which meant Abby got a carved pumpkin this year. Yeah! But our Halloween was a little more low-key. :-)

Halloween started on Halloween Eve with pumpkin "carving". Nate had flown in from D.C. at lunchtime and by dinner he was basically one too-long blink away from passing out at the table. Since Abby had carved a pumpkin with Auntie Katie earlier, I decided that we didn't need to do full-out pumpkin carving (which the babies wouldn't be into anyways) we could just do pumpkin coloring. After scouring the house for non-washable markers (as I try to throw anything but washable markers in the garbage as soon as they enter my house) I was able to find two blues, a yellow, a green, and a red to color our pumpkins with. It may not have been the messy fun I was looking for, but it was quick fun with minimal cleanup. Right up our alley that night!

Look at her grin! Beth was super excited to be given a marker and free rein to color.

Luckily our garden grew three pumpkins this year. Perfect for each child to have a decent sized one to color on. I love how deeply in concentration everyone is. Especially Beth as she focuses on coloring her leg. :-)

Jake enjoyed coloring as well as taking the marker cap off and putting it back on. Once his little fingers found a bug hole in the pumpkin he was just as happy shoving the marker tip into the hole as well. Nate thinks we have a future engineer on our hands. That'd be pretty cool if he was!

Abby decided to write out the "Five Little Pumpkins" poem she'd learned at school.

Holy Crap! Mom's in a picture! Blink and you'll miss it.

Once Abby was finished with her poem, and Nate and I were tired of taking markers away from babies who were trying to draw on their clothes - remember, people, non-washable markers - the family headed over to where all the leaves from our trees had fallen for some good leaf throwing and kicking time. 

As we put the entire family to bed early that night (except for Mom who got some nice quiet time!) it was with hopes of a great tomorrow. Beth and Jake were on the downhill slope of sickness, Abby hadn't gotten sick by staying up SUPER late the weekend before carving pumpkins, and Nate just needed a good night's sleep to recover from his travels. We were all set up for a great Halloween night!

The next morning I woke up super refreshed and ready to get my Pinterest-Mom on. LOL. For breakfast I served Googly-eyed Monster Pancakes. Abby's school lunch contained a pumpkin-shaped peanut butter and honey sandwich, pumpkin shaped carrot pieces, grapes, yogurt with Halloween sprinkles, Pirate Booty with leftover Googly-eyes, and two Halloween candy pieces. Dinner was Mummy Calzones, Pumpkin shaped carrot pieces with ranch dip, pirate booty, Hot Dog Spiders, and Monster Mouths (Apples with peanut butter and mini marshmallows).

Holy sugar rush, Batman!

I was super proud of my work. Abby took a peek and declared me the "Best Mom Ever"!

Haylee and Abby were my monster mouth making helpers. Katie said I had too much time on my hands. Nate wondered who the woman was that he came home to. LOL. I had a blast working in the kitchen creating all these yummy treats.

After dinner was picked up, it was time to head out for some trick-or-treating. I was able to sneak in another year of coordinating costumes (and will until somebody complains!!!) so this year we had a princess, unicorn, and a dragon.

Abby was over picture taking before it started. She just wants to get some candy already. Jake's dragon headpiece was so big it kept slipping down over his face. Beth was just chill, like usual.

My cutie-patootie unicorn.

 

A better view of Jake in his costume. The hood didn't last more than two houses. :-)

I was a little curious to see how trick-or-treating went. The previous year they were in strollers just along for the ride. This year I brought the stroller since I wasn't sure how long they'd be able to last, but knew that Abby was in for the long-haul. As we left the house Beth took off like a bullet and Grandma Akers had to race ahead to keep up with her. Jake and I were the last of the kid crew as he was having fun just stretching his legs. As the bigger kids went up to the first door (Beth having bypassed it completely and needed to be brought back) I grabbed Jake and raced to the group. Jake saw the bucket of candy placed in front of him. He looked back at me in confusion as to what was going on. Then Abby, Haylee, and Karcyn urged him to take a piece. He gently grabbed a candy and then again looked at me in confusion. I helped him put his candy in his bucket and said let's go to the next house to get more candy. His little eyes lit up as he realized that more candy was in store for him. Suddenly, his little legs couldn't run fast enough to get to that next house!

The kids trick-or-treating their first house.

Abby and Haylee urging Beth and Jake to take a piece of candy. 

As we continued our trick-or-treating journey the kids' personalities came out. Karcyn and Haylee were on a mission to get as much candy as possible by visiting as many houses as possible. Abby was loving being with the big girls and loved getting candy so she was happy. Chase liked getting candy but also was interested in seeing the decorations. Jake faithfully tried to walk up to each and every house we passed once he figured out that going to doors meant getting candy. I'm not sure Beth could have cared less. She was just happy to be out and walking that going up to doors to get candy was almost a deterrent from the fun she was having of exploring yards and rocks. We were out for roughly an hour with Bo, Katie, and Brooke keeping up with Karcyn, Haylee, Abby, and Chase and then Nate, myself, Grandma Akers, and Grandpa Akers trading off Beth and Jake. These two may be small but they are quick and constantly on the go!

Jake and Grandma gathering loot.

After an hour or so Chase got pretty tired. Grandpa Mark and Grandma Cathy had been following us in their car, so eventually Chase got in so he didn't have to walk anymore. Once Jake saw what Chase was up to he decided he wanted in on the car action as well. Grandpa Mark let Jake "drive" the car and little boy heaven had been achieved!

After another few houses Beth told us she was also done with trick-or-treating by the very intricate method of laying down on the sidewalk and closing her eyes. LOL.

This little unicorn had waved the white flag.

Nate and I decided that he would head home with the babies while I stayed with Abby who was somewhere up ahead with Haylee, Karcyn, and Karcyn's Mom Brooke. This was actually really nice as the previous year I'd been with the babies due to nursing needs and the year before I tapped out after a three block walk as I was out of breathe and exhausted from being pregnant with them. So I got to spend some fun time with Abby as we walked, talked, and increased our loot. Then, in a total Abby move, she randomly stopped and declared she was done. Thankfully Mark and Cathy drove up at just that moment or I'd have had a LONG walk back carrying a very tired little, big girl.

Once we got home Abby was all about handing out candy to trick-or-treaters that were still coming up to the house. Once 8pm hit I decided we were closed for business and dumped handfuls of leftover candy into, what I thought would be, the last trick-or-treaters we had. Then a few minutes later Abby came over and saw the empty candy bucket and got really upset about how we didn't have anymore candy for any future trick-or-treaters. Telling her we were done passing out candy didn't persuade her. Instead, she went into her own bucket of candy and pulled out pieces that she thought others might like and refilled up the trick-or-treaters candy bucket. This girl didn't grab the candy she thought was yucky, either. She grabbed a king sized candy bar, Reese's peanut butter cups, M&Ms, and Skittles. She really thought of others when making her selection. I was so proud of her giving heart that I opened our house back up for business for one more group of trick-or-treaters!

Passing our candy. It was great that this year the kids were old enough that we adults to keep sitting on the couch without having to move. :-)

Looking over her hard earned work. She was so sweet she even grabbed a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup and handed it to me because she knew they were my favorite and I didn't get any candy while we were out. She makes my heart smile!

Another successful year of trick-or-treating in the books. I'm hoping I can get in another year of themed costumes and another year of easy-peasy lemon-squeasy (as Abby would say) candy gathering.