Halloween arrived in the blink of an eye this year. It always does seem that way though. Once September hits the rest of the year goes whoosh. Anyway, Halloween fell on a Sunday this year and we filled up every minute of the day.
We started with carving pumpkins. Annabel scooped the goop for her pumpkin and Daniel's (Daniel wanted no part of the goop- never did love this part anyway). Then the kids carved out their jack-o-lantern faces. They turned out so cute! I should add that this is the first year we didn't go to the pumpkin patch to get pumpkins...these were good ol' pumpkins purchased from Jewel the day before. It was kind of bittersweet to not go to Johansen's, and Daniel was the one who actually wanted to hold on to tradition and still go, but the timing never worked out great, plus pumpkins really are so very expensive there, we just couldn't justify it any longer. $3 pumpkins sounded great right this year. Anyway, a break from tradition. I'm sad, but it's time to move on I guess. I don't have toddlers and young children anymore, do I? Insert crying emoji.
Since we had the whole day to fill, we decided to go see Grandma Mary Kay and Grandpa Larry after lunch with our costumes because they hadn't seen them yet. Grandma Mary Kay was delighted we stopped by! We even went trick or treating around the block by their house (trick or treating started much earlier there than in our town). So the kids were already getting a bunch of candy by this point! We didn't stay too long because we still had pumpkins to finish and Annabel and I had plans to meet with friends at 4.
Back home, we finished up with the pumpkins and then got ready to head out for trick or treating ourselves. Annabel had to leave before Daniel and I wanted pictures of the two of them together, so they both got their gear on and posed for pictures. Annabel was a Rubik's Cube as you know, and Daniel, you've seen sneak peeks, but now I'll tell you more...Daniel was a book character called Skulduggery Pleasant, basically a skeleton detective. (We've spent the entire last year reading the 14+ books in the Skulduggery Pleasant series! Book after book after book- our library had a few of them, but many had to be sourced and a few were even bought...Daniel ultimately wanted to own the series, so he was gifted it for his birthday. It was so fun to read all of these to him!!) This costume was all Daniel's idea and it turned out awesome! Skulduggery wears very nice clothes, so we hunted for a black sport coat for Daniel at Goodwill (a big win!!), found a cool black hat and red tie on Amazon, and then I got him a nice button down white shirt, plus black dress pants as well as black dress shoes (both of which he'd need for band anyway- concert attire is all black in middle school). We also hunted for a gaiter/mask with a skeleton print on Amazon and even found skeleton gloves. The look was completed with sunglasses. Daniel looked amazing! Skulduggery throws fire, that's one of his "things" as an "Elemental" in his magical world- so for the sneak peek pictures, you can see he's holding a glow ball for the fire. We forgot to do this on Halloween day, but the effect was pretty cool as a demo early on. Anyway, such fun to put together AWESOME homemade costumes- the Rubik's cube was a big hit (I heard moms say "follow the cube!" "look for the cube!", haha)- everybody loved the cube and the fact that it even turned. Daniel's costume- spiffy and awesome, even if you didn't know what it was, it was clearly a cool skeleton! The matching trick or treat bags were so fun, too. Annabel's bag was felt squares stuck on a black bag, while I had stenciled the Skulduggery Pleasant logo onto a black bag with white fabric paint for Daniel. Those turned out great, too.
Back to the festivities...
Annabel and I met up with her friends, Aggie, Elizabeth, and Mia, and their siblings and various neighbors. Her friend Zeynep had invited us to trick or treat, too, so we suggested they join our big group, which they were thrilled to do. We all had the most fun this way!! It was just one big happy group, lots of parents, lots of kids all ages, hot tea/drinks in hand, and so on. The kids got SO much candy. We wandered all the way around by Mia's house, on to down by the school (where there is a house that goes all out for Halloween, complete with a path in their yard- yes, a path- where things jump out and all- so fun!), and then stopped at Aggie's house in the middle for some pizza and drinks for dinner. Ben had joined me in there somewhere, too (my phone battery went completely dead and I needed the charger- whoops). After that, we continued toward our house and then around our big block. Some kids/families dropped out and headed home around then as it was getting dark, but the 5th grade girls were still going strong so we headed back near Mia's for another cul-de-sac of fun. It was SO dark by this point and late enough to boot, not to mention they couldn't carry their bags anymore, haha, so we called it good and all went back home. While talking to parents the next day, someone said they weighed their kid's bag of candy- I thought oh my gosh I don't even want to know!! Annabel did get tired of her costume (it was HEAVY after all that time) after our big block (she really lasted a good long while actually), so Daddy kindly carried that home along with her candy, got her Ravenclaw robe and an empty bag and rejoined us- very nice Daddy! All told, we were out for 3 hours, with that pizza break- that's a long time!
Meanwhile, Daniel went trick or treating on his own with Manny this year! First time for that. He's so responsible and has a very good sense of direction, he's a teen and in 7th grade now, it's absolutely time for this momma to let go. I actually happily did so- I can be cool. Such a big moment for him. Daniel and Manny had a lot of fun! We only saw them one time, from across the way, just as we were about to cross a street not far from our house, and he very much pretended he didn't know us, haha. Totally expected. But that peek was so fun! He says they kind of went all over and it sounds like they ended up by the park the other direction from where we went mainly. They were out for a few hours, too, like us. He was very responsible in getting back home at the expected time, though I was actually super flexible on this point (even if he wasn't paying attention when I said so, ahem)...and we also had a tiny hiccup in his being able to get into the house (we were just a bit behind him getting home), but we all survived (and learned some lessons) and I'm so proud of our guy. He's so incredible and brave and everything worked out. I do wonder if he'll go again next year...I hope so- it's such a fun night for them!
And after all this fun, thinking about it now...I'm afraid to even think that this might have been my last year trick or treating with any of my babies. I'm sure Annabel will go on her own next year with her friends. This makes me so sad in that bittersweet nostalgic way already. And so glad this night was SO fun for us all. I'll just have to soak up all these moments while I'm living them even harder now.
Enjoy the pictures!!
Pumpkin carving time!!
A visit to Grandma Mary Kay and Grandpa Larry + a little bit of trick or treating there!
Back home to finish carving.
A bandit and a kitty face!
Ready to go trick or treating! So glad the weather was SO nice and we didn't have to super bundle up. Everybody was great with a few layers and gloves!
Annabel and Zeynep
Our whole trick or treat gang!
For this first picture, left to right: Annabel, Mia, Elizabeth, Aggie, Stephen (Aggie's brother), Annabelle (Elizabeth's sister), Ryan (Mia's brother), Zeynep, and Mehmet (Zeynep's brother). (For the second picture, some kids moved and some neighbors I don't know joined in.)
Off we go! The light was lovely in Mia's neighborhood when we started- I love that late afternoon fall sun.
There won't be any stairs, we said. Well, when you're by the bigger houses, there are. Whoops. Annabel had to go step by step up and down those stairs, but she managed!
Darling girl! Love her so much.
Fun stop at the Halloween house in our neighborhood, complete with a path in the yard and things popping out!
Time for pizza and drinks, plus some candy swapping!
I spy Daniel!!
Cute picture of these 5th grade girls by our house!
Left to right: Elizabeth, Annabel, Mia and Aggie. (Zeynep had gone home after pizza.)
Candy tube! (This is the middle school band teacher's house, too.)
I loved the lights and the glow of this house.
Manny (costume from something called the Squid Game, something I know zero about, so I'll take the kids' words for it, haha) and Daniel- all ready to go, too! (I made Ben take these, since I'd already left!)
What a fun Halloween! Now we have enough candy for years.
