Halloween 2018

The week of Halloween was a bit of a whirlwind around here. Maybe it's because it was in the middle of the work week or maybe because Lincoln's birthday is smack dab in the midst of that hustle/bustle, but it feels like we hurried along to fit everything in this year. 

We managed to carve pumpkins, this year Sidney surprised us and wanted to do everything on her own. From the gut-digging to the carving, she was my little helper. 

We ventured over to a little Halloween party at a nearby vacant store, where the best thing about it was a cute picture :) Ok not entirely true, we enjoyed a horse/wagon ride and the kids played a few games. 

I got to volunteer at Sidney's class party. 

And then finally, it was time for these three to hit up the neighborhood for treats. Regan is teetering on outgrowing this annual tradition, but I was happy she decided to hang out with some friends and still enjoy the treats from their neighborhood. 

The other two and I met up with some friends and walked door to door to their hearts' content! It sure was a successful Halloween! 

Halloween 2015

Trick or treat has come and gone. Though we are into November, this tease of summer weather has me begging for July again! 

We prepped for Halloween by carving pumpkins...lots of them. The girls did great helping and here are a few of our finished products. 

The Friday before Halloween was the Harvest parties at school. With 2 in school, it means 2 separate parties at the exact same time (our school does all parties on the same day, at the same time). As lovely as that sounds, it means I can't be in 2 places at one time. And so, I have to alter my days volunteering in each class and then ensuring someone is around to watch Lincoln. Because let's be honest, adding him to the mix of chaos at school would prove disastrous! This time it was Sidney's turn to have me. I loved seeing her interact with her new (and some old) friends. 

Sidney and Emma

I arrived a tad early to help all those first graders get ready so when they were prepped and ready, I dashed over to Regan's class for a quick photo op. 

These girls are just fabulous. And their parents have become friends to us. 

Because it takes a village....

Josie, Abigail, Addyson, Regan, Kaitlyn and Becca

After a quick parade around the school, it was time to start the parties. Sidney took her hand at bowling, but first, Mr A had to chuckle and remind her to throw underhand! Our little softball player was winding up with that plastic pumpkin....

Here is her wonderful group of first grade friends. 

Once Halloween rolled around, my mom came up to help man the house while we took the kids out trick or treating. Lincoln was terribly unhappy as I put on his Dalmatian costume so I gave him a dum dum ("orje " his favorite) and he quickly cooperated for pictures. We made it about 15 houses before Lincoln asked to go home; eventually I got sad anyway as I realized for every 10 pieces of candy he received, he was able to eat maybe 1. 

Darn allergies.  

He was adorable chasing the girls from house to house, but what surprised us was his concern for "cows" (aka: cars) as we crossed the street all night. He refused to walk along the side of the street (then the next day he darted into our street after a ball without a care in the world!). The girls made a haul as they kept going for another hour. At the end of the night, we dumped the bags into a pile and I think we have enough candy for 6 months!  

 Happy Halloween! 

Halloween 2014

Halloween has come and gone. It was a whirlwind of a day. Heck, it was a whirlwind of a week! Sandwiched between Lincoln's birthday, family pictures, Lincoln's 1 year doctor visit and his first birthday party, was Halloween.

Ryan and I decided back in September that we would spend this special day volunteering at the kids' Harvest Parties. Well let's be honest, I made the decision and he hastily agreed to being signed up when I asked him in the middle of a chaotic Open House for school. :) You see, when we only had one kid in school, he was free to go about his day while I spent time volunteering. He's honest when he says volunteering isn't his thing. I even roped him into cross-walk volunteer for the morning of Halloween. I'm pretty good :) lol

 

My parents came up to babysit Lincoln while we headed to school. On the drive, I gave him a preview of what to expect and it went something like this.

Me: "I want to warn you that the chaos and noise level is slightly deafening on party days".

Him: "I might hate you a little right now".

 

In the end, he admitted that it was fun! And seeing the girls be so excited to each have a parent volunteer is worth every second of that deafening noise level.

 

I got to spend the afternoon with Sidney. It was my first time volunteering in her Kindergarten classroom. And while I'm familiar with some of the kids (due to lunches, school events and living in the neighborhood), it was fun to see her interact with all of her classmates.

Her class operated in station format. I was in charge of the 'snack' station. It was a pretty cute owl. She was over the moon delighted to have me as the parent-helper for her first station.

Miss P decorated their tables with some paper in the morning so that the tables were somewhat presentable. She asked all the children to draw a little picture on their table spot. I couldn't resist snapping a picture of Sidney's spot.

My little Picasso. 

Here is her class.

She's sandwiched between her two BFF's. Those 3 are essentially inseparable! 

I was able to sneak away for a few minutes and catch Ryan in Regan's classroom. Unfortunately, their grade was operating on a little different rotation so he only got to spend the last 15 minutes or so with Regan's class (some grades rotate between all grade level classrooms, some grades stay in their own classroom and just rotate stations).

His station was the mini golf into a carved out pumpkin. Not a bad gig for the golfer in the family! 

Here's Regan's rowdy bunch! I had to snap quickly because these kids were excited. Like jump around, can't sit still, excited! Regan's in the back next to Mrs N and her BFF. 

And as if that excitement wasn't enough, we dressed up after dinner and headed into the bitter cold (just under 40F and getting colder). Lincoln (and I), made it to about 6-7 houses before he was ready to go home.

 I love love loved his costume though and just had to take him out in it! He certainly was the cutest little lion that I ever did see :)

 

It was a slow night of treaters at our house...only 6! SIX kids. Sad. We are accustomed to closer to 30. Darn cold must have scared them all away.



Thanks mom and dad for helping out! 

Halloween Prep

Our kiddos are decked out and ready for the Halloween holiday coming up. We try to get good use out of their costumes and attend a few events around town. Today was just a photo shoot in the back yard with Regan our peacock, Lincoln our lion and Sidney our butterfly fairy (which by the way she discovered and created all on her own). 

Let's take a closer look at the littlest, because gosh darn it, he is sure cute in that lion. He didn't dress up last year, being only 3 days new, so I may have spent an outrageous amount on this costume, but really I'm making up for last year too :) 

Serious, it's just too much! I can't stand how cute he is! 

And all warm and fuzzy ready for trick or treating night. 

Treaters

We had a great Halloween with our treaters this year! Ryan got to take the girls out door to door while I stayed back with the newest one and my mom answered our doorbell. It was a busy, fun filled night! 

Sid looked like the perfect super hero with her winter jacket under her costume. Regan was a pretty witch and Lincoln was mommys little monster! 

And the girls made a haul in just one hour!

Look at all that candy! 

There's a special place for the girls in the hearts of some of our neighbors and they were given WHOLE candy bars and extra goodies.