Can I just tell you that I love Holidays? I love celebrating and having traditions. It makes this girl’s heart sing. I’m just going to get right into the many reasons why I think Halloween is bomb!

Candy

I may have a slight problem…okay a huge problem with having a sweet tooth and not being able to control it most of the time. If I get an idea in my head that I “need” something sweet, it’s not going away. With that being said, Halloween candy is pretty awesome. And this mama is not about to lie to you, I steal my kids candy. Yep, you heard me, I’m a thief. I also ask if I can have a piece. Many times the littles will share with me, but every so often they say no. Errrr what?! I then politely remind them it’s nice to share. Haha! They still sometimes say no. But that’s okay, it’s their candy. And besides I will sneak a piece or two when they are sleeping. Hey, don’t judge! I gotta do it while they are young and the candy stays in the pantry.

Pumpkins

For years my cute mom has taken the grandkids to pick a pumpkin. In the years that I have gone, since having kids, we have tried different places. Last year we found a really good, non-scary, pumpkin patch and went back to it again this year. They not only have pumpkins, but have bounce houses. Last year my two year old Miss L was DETERMINED to go on one of those trampoline things where you get harnessed in and get to bounce, bounce very high. Oh she is so brave!

Well, needless to say she remembered and was again determined to do it again. She was a little sad to see that it wasn’t up this year but she still have fun playing in the bounce houses.

We also like to take the kids to pick out huge pumpkins when a local grocery store has them for super cheap. Then there is carving or painting or putting stickers on the pumpkins. This year we had the kids paint their pumpkins. They started out with faces and then each one kind of turned into a dark paint blob. I had to remind myself that THEY WERE HAVING FUN!! It doesn’t matter how they turned out. It’s the fun of painting that’s the point.

Dressing Up

Dressing up is fun to do, fun to do, fun to do. Dressing up is fun to do, to do, to do, to do. Maybe that’s why I loved teaching first grade. I got to dress up for Halloween. But that hasn’t stopped me, Hubby and I dressed up this year. I figured this will most likely be my last Halloween being pregnant so I got to do something, right? But, the thing is I’m really good at procrastinating that it wasn’t until Halloween morning that I gave it much thought. So this is what I came up with. I thought I was being pretty clever. (I was Hefty, and Eddy was Glad…haha)

I also like making my littles costumes. Mr. E wanted to be Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon. That really exceeds my sewing ability. And my search for costumes exceeded the amount of money I was willing to spend on a costume. So I got clever; once again, I promise it doesn’t happen too often but every once in a while I come up with some great ideas; and suggested some other ideas to him. The one that stuck was garbage can, which he wanted to change to a recycle can. Not a problem buddy! I can make that! So here is Mr. E in his recycle can costume. It was fun to make and not too difficult.

 

Miss L asked her grandma while we were at Costco with her if she would get her the pink Fairy Princess costume. A part of me was sad because I like making costumes but the bigger part of me was all “YIPPY” I don’t need to make or buy her a costume. Grandma was thrilled that she could spoil her 3 year old granddaughter and bought her the costume. She looked mighty darling in it.

Miss S was going to be a hand me down ghost costume I had made for Miss L when she and Mr. E were ghosts a few years ago. However, we had the unfortunate event that a mouse had made our Halloween box its resident for a time. So we had to throw away a bunch of Halloween things, costumes included. Wipe a tear. Some of the things I could wash and save was a parrot costume Mr. E wore when he was a baby (when Hubby and I were pirates). Miss S loved putting it on, all of the parts. She made one cute parrot!

 

Decorations

We don’t have too many decorations and after the mouse incident we had a few less. Since moving into our house and actually having a porch that people can see I have made something each year we have lived here. The first year I went to a Home Depot girl’s night with my awesome sister. It was a total blast and we got to make the big wood pumpkin holders. This year I was lazy and never did put anything in it. Last year I made the BOO sign. It looked like a 4 year old painted it because the contact paper wouldn’t stick and it looked horrible. This year while I was painting my plastic pumpkin teal (we decided to do nut free treats for trick or treating) I decided to fix my BOO sign. It looks so much better and less like a child did it. I also was able to make a darling haunted house with some great girls that live in my neighborhood, woohoo girl’s night!

 

Halloween Dinner

This is going to be a new tradition. It was so much fun to make a Halloween dinner. We did one at my brother in law and sister in law’s house with the extended family. For that dinner I got to make dessert. So of course I made a mummy cake and cupcakes. Mr. E had wanted to make cupcakes for forever so we hunted down the Halloween funfetti cake mix and frosting.

I had found pumpkin shaped pasta and a yummy Autumn Harvest sauce at Trader Joes weeks before Halloween and was super excited to use them. The pumpkin pasta didn’t hold up as well but it was really good. Then I made mummy hot dogs. The kids took off the breading around the hot dogs, of course. Then finally Miss L tasted it and said it was good, so Mr. E did the same. Hopefully next year they will remember they liked the mummy hot dogs and leave them intact, that is until they eat them.

Now for two years Hubby has made orange and black pancakes. The kids talked about it so much and love it that we had to do it again. Hubby is the pancake maker in the house. I don’t remember the last time I made pancakes.

Classroom Parties

As a teacher holidays were a lot of fun but also a bit stressful. So. Much. Craziness. I have been looking forward to being a part of a classroom party from the perspective of a parent. Much less stress and I only had to deal with my three hyper kiddos not 20. Mr. E is in afternoon kindergarten and had a mini Halloween Parade. We, of course, dressed the girls up and watched his cute kindergarten class go on their parade. I was able to go back and help out a bit with a class party. I helped the students make monster doughnuts and play pin the lips on Dracula.

Trick or Treating

Last but not least is trick or treating. Walking = hard belly and needing to go to the bathroom. I wasn’t planning on going trick or treating the whole time but sucked it up and stayed with them. I may or may not have used my neighbor’s bathroom. Then when I was done Miss L decided that she also needed to use the bathroom. Have I mentioned we have an awesome neighborhood? Miss S was sassy as she walked around and wouldn’t let Hubby help her out too much. So cute! She also asked every house if they had a dog. No one could understand her so they would just look at us for a translation. Then of course looking at all the candy when you get home is a must, as well as eating some. Halloween as a kid was amazing but as a parent I love it more because I get to see the joy on my kiddos faces as they get to experience all the fun of the holiday.

Not So Fun

Well, our Halloween wasn’t all parrots, fairy princesses, and recycle cans. It was also filled with hours of Hubby trying to get the sprinklers to work and hooked up to the new sprinkling system he put in the park strip, two trips to Home Depot, no water in the house for hours, and a late night out in the dark and cold. We ended up eating our Halloween dinner without him and had to forgo a spooky show after the kids went to bed. But, in the end getting the sprinklers fixed and the water turned back on were a major plus.

I guess just because it’s Halloween life will go on; the fun parts and the not so fun parts.

What are some of your Halloween traditions you love?

Xoxo

Stephanie