Halloween 2018

Happy first day of November! I have a few posts to catch up on, so let's begin with Halloween.

I didn't really know this before having kids, but it's really easy to allow holidays to kind of take over life and go on and on and on. It just seems like there's a ton of options and activities for each holiday, and things can get out of control very quickly. Halloween is one of those holidays for us. I don't love Halloween in the first place, but for several years it seemed like we were wearing costumes every day for a week straight. In a way this was great because I felt like we got good use out of our costumes, but on the other hand I felt like we needed to cut back a bit. Last year, we did cut out the big Trunk of Treats event we always attend, and we had no regrets!

This year, we kept our activities down to one evening at Food Truck Thursday, school parties, and Boologah. I felt like that was plenty, but Brianna and Brenson both made a comment about not getting to wear their costumes much. Those comments honestly just drove home the reason why we need to cut back on the going and doing a bit!

As much as I wanted to do a family costume this year, it just didn't work out. Instead, each of the kids chose their own costumes, and it was great. Brooke and Brecklyn both wanted to be unicorns, even though Brooke was a unicorn last year. However, her costume from last year still fit, and I was able to find a matching one in pink for Brecklyn . . . WINNING!

Brooke, Brecklyn

Brianna has recently fallen in love with the book Charlotte's Web, so she decided to be Fern Arable this year. I loved this costume idea (I'm a sucker for book character costumes). She made a great little Fern!

Brenson initially told me he wanted to be a police officer this year, but I struggled to find him a costume. I actually saw many police officer costumes, but none of them were big enough for him. I found this great astronaut costume, and thankfully he agreed to that instead. You never know about Bren because he's picky and kind of weird about dressing up, so I was thankful we found an alternative we could agree on!

Cuties :-)

Food Truck Thursday is always the last Thursday of the month. In October, it fell on the same night as our school carnival. I initially told the kids they would need to choose which one they wanted to do (see, I was trying really hard to stick to the whole cutting back thing!), but they really struggled with this. We finally decided to just do both! The photos above are ones I took to send to Chris while they were trying on their costumes before the carnival. We had to make sure everything fit and worked before we wore the costumes to Food Truck Thursday.

We enjoyed the carnival first,

then put on our costumes and headed downtown for Food Truck Thursday!

It was cold and drizzly this night, so we didn't stay downtown long. They were so cute trick-or-treating at the shops, though!

We even ran into Detective Chloe!

The best part of the night for me was the $5 neck and shoulder massage Chris got me. It was completely unexpected, but I enjoyed it thoroughly!

Halloween was almost a week later, on Wednesday this year. Brianna did not have a class party (I guess third grade is too old for parties 😭), but Brenson did. 

Since the kids have been in school, class parties have been stressful for me. They are just so crazy and loud and chaotic on their own, then add in that I have twin babies then toddlers in tow and it was just a lot. I know I've said this several times lately, but we've turned a corner around here. The little girls are really growing up, and this party was actually enjoyable for me.

The twins sat and ate just like all the other kids, and I was even able to visit with some other parents for a little bit. I also felt like I could focus on Brenson a whole lot more than usual. And honestly? It's kind of bittersweet 😢.

I'm so glad we joined him for his class party!

The photo below is one that one of the class moms sent me.

Later that afternoon, I took the kids outside and took a few photos of them in their costumes. It had rained all afternoon, so I didn't know if we'd even be able to go to Boologah that evening (where we typically take pics). 

My sweet unicorns, Brooke and Brecklyn

Brooke

Brecklyn

I couldn't get over how cute they were from the back!

We added a jet pack to Bren's costume. Daddy actually made it!

How cute is that?!?

My precious Fern

Is this a classic Brianna face or what?!? Haha.

What an adorable crew!

The rain let up a bit, so we decided to go for it and head to Boologah. We had already planned to only stay for about an hour due to Bible study that night, so why not get wet?!? Daddy met us there from work for the fun.

We saw Detective Chloe again!

Not only was it rainy and wet, but it was also cold. We just never know what the weather will do on Halloween!

The weather certainly didn't stop my crew from collecting candy, though.

I smiled every time I looked at them. I couldn't help it!

Brianna forgot her coat, so she was wearing Bren's. And Brecklyn? I have no idea what she was doing, haha!

I had packed everyone dry clothes, so we headed to the church building and changed before Bible study. We actually had singing night since it was the 5th Wednesday of the month, as well as some visitors who had also attended Boologah.

It certainly wasn't the most pleasant time we've ever had at Boologah, but I was glad we went. And now, we have candy to last us the whole year!!!