We kicked off the Halloween season with a trip to Anderson Farms. Unfortunately, we didn't spend enough time checking out the forecast, and only got to spend about 30 minutes there before the skies opened up and it started pouring freezing rain. Didn't stop the kids from having fun riding go carts, racing through the corn maze, and buying a bunch of pumpkins, but it definitely shortened the time we were willing to spend there. Here are some cute pictures before it got too bad:
Here are the wet and ready to leave kids after we called uncle in the corn maze. The kids were bummed about the short time with their cousins, so we headed out for pizza instead, which was full of laughs and fun (and wet willys) before Isaac had to go to his baseball game.
We took our (many) pumpkins home and started to decorate the house. The neighbors started putting out their Halloween stuff awhile back, so we had some catching up to do. We told the kids we would only help carve the pumpkins if they cleaned out the guts - they didn't get too far before dramatically gagging and begging for help. We got carving kits to help us graduate beyond the elementary designs we usually do, but they required special tools and some serious elbow grease - so the kids just watched and pointed out where our designs didn't look as good as the pictures (haunted house and a pirate-cat) - but were ultimately happy with the results :)
Finally, on the eve of Halloween, after the kids shamed us for being no fun when we told them we weren't planning to dress up, we all took a trip to the Halloween store to see if there were any costumes that would meet our and the kids' expectations. The pickens were slim, but we found Mickey and Minnie in our sizes, and everyone was happy. The kids woke up super-excited to wear their costumes to school, (Strawberry Shortcake and Power Ranger) and equally excited to see Bill and me in ours. We all dressed up, and Bill went to Isaac's school (he agreed to decorate the classroom for the Halloween party) and I took Caitlin. He met us just in time for Cate's Halloween parade and we hung out for the beginning of her classroom party, before heading back over to Isaac's school. We missed the parade, but got to see him and all his friends in costume and hang out for the beginning of his party, before we had to go to work. Both parties were adorable, and the kids were really grateful we were there (along with every other parent - I'm continuously amazed at how few people seem to work around here!)
Here are some pics from Cate's school:
Here is Isaac's party (he's walking toward the crafts table):
On Halloween, we got the whole fam to come to our neighborhood for Trick-or-Treating: Grandma (flower child), Aunt Alli (school girl), Uncle Chad, Sebastian (speed racer), Aunt Jen, Jaden (grim reaper), Talia (snow queen), and Ari (spider-girl). The kids had fun running from house to house and got enough candy to last until next year.
Back at the house, Pilar (Pink Lady) was having fun experiencing her first American Halloween (she had been making adorable crafts with the kids all week in preparation) and Bill and Uncle Chad were making a feast for everyone to enjoy after we warmed up.
After dinner, Isaac, Cate and Sebastian took turns greeting the trick-or-treaters and giving out candy. Isaac refused to go in until the last trick-or-treater was done, but Seb and Cate got bored and went in for a dance party.
Before bed, the kids poured out their bounty and catalogued the best and worst pulls, and lamented the fact that we would only let them have one :) Overall, a very fun Halloween!
