Halloween!

This year's Halloween was FABULOUS!!!

Emily and Caleb were both able to wear their costumes to school and march in the costume parade. Elinor made the most of her morning by first marching with Caleb in the kindergarten parade and then joining Emily in the 2nd grade parade as well! 

This year was the kids' very first time going REAL trick-or-treating and they were over the moon excited. They couldn't believe people were giving out candy for free and all they had to do was knock on the door and say "trick or treat!" Jacob was super cute, trying to keep up but always a little bit behind, ending up on his own at the door step saying "twick-weet" and then, "geenku."

Here they all are on the porch before we left. Joseph stayed home to answer the door (he wore his Cat in the Hat costume to work, which meant biking in a tux and with a tail!) and I was dressed to match Jake as a chef.

It was a pretty good haul this year. We just trick-or-treated down the street as far as a friend's house that we had decided on before and came back. Can I just say that we live in a prime neighborhood for trick-or-treating, and it was so fun! So many other groups of trick-or-treaters and so many well-decorated and lit-up houses. One even had a full-on haunted house in the back yard with fog machines and black lights. The kids loved it.

Does anyone else remember doing this as a kid? Dumping everything out right in the doorway to count, sort, and eat your hard earned candy?

Jacob was certainly happy with the whole Halloween thing.

He loves him a good lollipop.

And two is even better!

This was Caleb's design for our Jack-O-Lantern this year. Joseph stayed pretty true to the picture. I don't have a good picture of the pumpkin (you can sort of see it in the first picture), but when we first lit the candle and turned out the lights to check it out, it gave Jacob a good fright. It's a pretty creepy face.

This is Emily's Elsa costume. She opted to go as Tiana to the ward trunk-or-treat, saving this one for the school Halloween parade and real trick-or-treating. She was very specific this year, telling me she wanted to be Elsa and she wanted it to be homemade and out of these very specific, hand selected fabrics from JoAnn's. I probably shouldn't have complied, but I sort of enjoyed putting it together! And it was mostly impossible to not sing "Let it Go!" in a super dramatic, Elinor-esque manner as I was working with any of this fabric.

And to round out the night, a late night movie with pillows and blankets in the living room. Em was working on a secret project for the first little bit.

I love that Halloween was on a Friday this year. It was really nice to be able to sleep in the next morning. I hereby proclaim this one of the best Halloweens ever!