Halloween Fun!

Truthfully, Halloween is not my favorite holiday...too much candy making my kids whiny & greedy...too much gore & guts around every corner, I just don't find much to celebrate about grotesque displays of images that I don't want seared into my kids brains (or mine either)...too many skimpy & seductive costumes, seriously I put every Party City or Costume Express flyer straight into the recycle bin. But despite all of the negative factors, our family enjoyed a fun and rather low-key Halloween. One good thing about Halloween being on a Sunday was that most of our day was taken up with our normal church & worship activities. We did decide to stay home from the evening church service so that we could do trick-or-treating on the earlier side. It is kind of a tradition that my parents come over on Halloween to see the kids all dressed up in their costumes, and they hand out candy at our house while we take the kids out.

In our old neighborhood, there were slews of kids & passing out the candy was a full-time job...this year, being in a new house that is not really in a neighborhood & a having a reaalllly long driveway, we didn't think many kids would make the trek up the driveway to ring the doorbell. So we set my parents up with some chairs at the top of the driveway.

Yaya, Grandpa & our Jack-O-Lanterns ready to greet the trick-or-treaters!

Thankfully the evening was not too cold & they were very good sports to sit out there & pass out candy to those who passed by. Thanks Yaya & Grandpa!!!  I think they had about 20 kids total...next year I will know to buy much less candy!

 Drew with his first Snickers of the night, courtesy of Yaya & Grandpa!

 Can I get some help with this, please?

 Mmmmm, delicious, I'll be chewing this for the next half hour!

 There's no wrong way to eat a Reese's peanut butter cup!

 Little wagon ride to pass the time until trick-or-treating...

 Hold on tight!

 Jack got a little help from Grandpa on the way back up the hill!

 Even dinosaurs need their shoes!

 Cutest Dinosaur on the Block

 Aw, I love that this dinosaur costume has been worn by all of our kids for their first Halloween!

(This is actually Drew's second year wearing it!)

Another Snickers... 

 ...can someone open the wrapper for me?

Peyton Manning scooting around a bit 

 Our pretty princess doing what all the pretty princesses do...twirling!

 Sophie has all of her accessories & is ready to go!

 She's our 50's girl in her poodle skirt with a poodle purse & her stuffed poodle in a dog carrier! 

 Candy?

Betcha didn't know that dinosaurs play football, too...

 And they drive cars!

 Darcy agrees that there's no wrong way to eat a Reese's!

 

 And now for the portion of the evening where we round all the kids up for a "quick" group photo before heading out to trick-or-treat...this shot is take 1 of about 35! (Don't worry I haven't included all 35, just a few of my favorites!)

 The one with no one looking at the camera!

 The one with Drew pointing at something

 The one with Drew pointing at his nose

 The one with Drew acting like a dinosaur

 The one where everyone is doing something funny with their lips

 After all that, Darcy needs another Reese's cup!

 Ha-ha! I get to ride in the stroller...

 ...it's because I'm a princess!

 A few more passes before we head out...

And we're off!

We actually had a really nice evening out trick-or-treating. I always enjoy getting to meet some new neighbors or at least see their faces. The kids sure racked up in the candy department (2/3 of which we will hide & then throw away when we go to get the buckets out next year...I know this from experience.) But for me, I think the best part of the evening was just being out together, taking a walk together, watching the kids help one another up & down the steps at various houses or holding hands while navigating a tricky side walk. Helping the kids practice their manners while greeting people & thanking them for giving us candy. 

 Drew spent most of the night in the stroller with a Reese's cup squeezed in one hand & a Snickers bar held tightly in the other...the bigger kids always politely asked for a piece of candy for their baby brother's bucket, too. 

And my heart melted when at one point Jack was talking to Drew who kept saying "candy, candy, candy..." and Jack told him, "It is lots of fun to get candy, but we have to remember that Jesus is more important than candy and we have to always put Jesus first!"    

We tried to avoid houses with over the top decorations, but there was one house we passed with skeletons, tombstones, dry ice & the works...Darcy looked at Jeff, laughed & said, "That's just silly!" 

 Darcy trick-or-treating with Daddy after she tripped over a broken sidewalk & screamed so loud that the whole street could hear her...

 Daddy's little dinosaur

 Sophie & her poodle skirt had tired legs & needed a ride for a while...

 Drew joined in on the trick-or-treating for the last few houses, but he was most interested in digging through his bucket to find more candy...

 I don't think he let the bucket go for the rest of the night...

 Look, evidence that I was there!

 Drew with his 3rd or 4th (I lost count) Snickers bar of the night...

Good to the last drop!