A Very Happy Halloween

We had an eventful Halloween this year. It was jam packed with tons of activities that were such a blast! Just a warning: this post is ridiculously long because I made 4 post into one.

Ward Octoberfest

It started off with our Ward Halloween party. Our family went as Peter Pan, Tinkerbell, & Wendy. We attempted Captian Hook but the costume just wasn't right. We should have done Smee. Anyway, here we are!

This years ward party was especially good. I felt like it was so organized and ran pretty smoothly. There was a great turnout and tons to do. Started off with food of course, our usual Chili Cook-off complete with cornbread, salads & of course dessert, since Halloween candy is not enough.

There were TONS of activities for the kiddos.

Pumpkin Bowling -P was a pro at this!

Searching for prizes in the popcorn bin. P found prizes and Em just ate the popcorn.

There was also a Cake Walk, Ping-Pong ball toss (which P NAILED despite them telling him he should move closer), and a coloring table.

And here we are marching in the costume parade.

After all the inside festivities were done we headed out to the parking lot for some good 'ol Trunk-or-Treating. This was P's first real exposure to trick-or-treating and lets just say he is a fan! He would sprint from one car to the next laughing hysterically as he would say "trick-or-treat." It cracked me up. He went around and around and around until his bag was too heavy for him to carry.

His favorite treat is the Lollipop. And Em was just happy to be there.

It was such a great event and a good prep for actual Halloween. It was fun dressing up with the kids, I kinda felt 12 years old, but it was fun. And thanks to my amazing friends who made our costumes possible! Everything was given to me that day. What great buddies I have!

Pumpkin Painting

The dollar store sells these little pumpkins which I think is awesome! I thought it would be fun for everyone in the family to have their own pumpkin. Since the kids are still too small to help carve I thought it would be fun if we let them paint their pumpkins.

At first they were a little shy with it, but they eventually got into it.

Em thought it was a good idea to eat it (you can barely see it on her lower lip in this pic). Thank heavens for non-toxic EVERYTHING!

P eventually covered the entire pumpkin and was very sad when it was time to go inside and take a bath. He LOVES to paint and I do not bust it out very often so when I do he goes to town.

Halloween Party

Me and my friend had tossed around the idea of throwing a Halloween party for the kids. Finally like the day before Halloween we made it official and made it happen.

We had a great turnout! Of course Peter Pan, Tinkerbell, & Wendy were there (I only dressed up since I helped host)

We had quite the group: Spiderman, Lightning MaQueen, Buzz Lightyear, 2 Ballerinas, Little Red Riding Hood, Woody, Jesse, a cowboy, Alice in Wonderland, Cheshire Cat, and I think 2 others. I think pretty much everyone was between the ages of 1 to 3. It was a little bit of crazy and a whole lot of awesome.

The Grub

The food came out so great! We had Mummy Dogs, Cheese Ghost, Apple mouths, Witch Grapes, Ghost on a stick, baby pumpkins, and a few other tasty treats as well.

Games

I was in charge of games and the kids really seemed to like them.

We had a beanbag toss into this pumpkin's mouth, and another one exactly like it where they had to toss a ping-pong ball. It was fun.

Ball toss to knock down the can tower. They all loved this one. They started out taking turns great but then it got a little too out of control. But it was fun while it lasted!

We also did a pin the face on the pumpkin which was also a hit. The Jack-o-lantern came out rather Picasso, but still awesome none the less.

We also did cookie decorating complete with frosting and sprinkles. This too got a little crazy. Kids ended up just dipping their knife in the frosting, then sprinkles , then their mouth and repeating those steps over and over. But they had fun!

There was also a whole lot of just playing together as kids love to do. We could have had no games at all and they would have been totally fine. It was such a blast to do, I want to do it again next year for sure. Now we are trying to put together a Christmas party. Hopefully it goes as well as this one did!

And just because I like this picture, here is Peter Pan helping the other guest fly.

Halloween Afternoon/Night

We never got around to carving pumpkins as a family which I was bummed about since it is a family tradition. So on Halloween we headed over to my folks to visit and carve. Jeff wasn't sad to miss it since he actually hates carving pumpkins and really only does it to help me fulfill my desire to do family traditions, isn't he such a good hubby! Anyway, the kiddos played outside with Grandma & Grandpa while I busted out these 3 awesome pumpkins!

They came out pretty good if I do say so myself. I was only going to do mine, but I did it so fast I offered to do theirs too. The white ghost might be my favorite and it is a home grown pumpkin too!

Here is how awesome our pumpkin looked while glowing. Below is a shot of our walkway on Halloween night. Too bad we got home so late we only had about 4 groups of kids. I felt kind of bad but not really since it was our kids first time going, we both really wanted to be there.

We decided since the kids are so young and since they really do not need that much candy that we would really only go to our family's houses. We actually started at my childhood friend's house. Her parents had never met the kids and asked us to come by so we did. It was so great to see them! They even requested for us to come back on Thanksgiving.

Next stop, my folks.

P learned a lot from the ward Trunk or Treat so he knew all about this trick or treat business and he was excited! Cant you tell? So excited in fact, that he fell asleep on the drive to the next house. Silly kid! He refused to take a nap that day and I just new he would fall asleep.

O-well, I guess there are worse things to wake up to than candy right?

GG's was the next stop. We were her first treaters of the night. She invited us in and even gave the kids extra treats. An awesome book about trick-or-treating (which I probably read 50 times a day until I packed it up for next year) and a few other fun goodies. I wanted the kids to be able to get a real taste of trick-or-treating too so we went to a few of GG's neighbors houses as well.

It was so fun, the kids were so excited. Em especially cracked me up, she would kinda hide a little ways away but as soon as she saw the bowl of candy come out she would sprint to the door. I didn't know the little girl could move so fast. She is a crack up!

Next stop was Granny and Gramps. We forgot to take pictures here but they sure loaded us up with goodies too! The kids got little card games, fruit roll ups, and all sorts of other goodies. Not to mention we got to come inside and take a break to play with some toys. Granny's house is always a treat!

Last stop for the night was G & G Score's. They hardly got any treaters this year and when we came they were so excited! They even laid the bowl on the ground and let the kids pick out whatever they wanted, what a treat! We didn't stay too long since it was already passed bedtime but I'd say it was an AWESOME first trick-or-treating experience.

Our Halloween was Awesome!

How was yours?