They both knew exactly what they wanted to be by October 1st. Brooke had her heart set on Belle, which I wasn't so sure about. This was before I realized her Belle dress was the one and only dress-up in the playroom that wasn't completely tattered and destroyed. By some sort of miracle, the Belle dress had been spared. Being pregnant & exhausted, a pre-made & already-in-possession costume sounded good to me, so she got to be Belle! A curling iron, some blush, and a tiara from Halloween 2 years ago, and boom - princess!
I'm not sure where he got the idea, but Joe told us he wanted to be "a Superman". Not sure he had ever really seen the real Superman, I started envisioning a Super Joe costume. He just wanted to be a superhero, so I thought we could make him look like quite the crime-fighter. And then 3 minutes later I remembered I was still pregnant & exhausted, so a cheap store-bought Superman costume was acquired instead. It ended up being pretty darn cute, due in large part to the built in muscles. (If you ask him to show you his muscles, he puts one arm up like this and growls at you. Hilarious.)
The first event of the season was a Halloween party at their cousin Owen's house. They don't get to see him often, so they were super thrilled just to go to his house. Their minds were blown when they realized there were games and crafts and treats involved! They had a blast painting pumpkins & making pasta necklaces & playing games. The afternoon was capped off with trick-or-treating all over the yard. Such a fun day with all of their cousins that I think will become an annual tradition.
(Oh, did I forget to mention the adults dressed up for this one, too? Ever seen Snow White with a baby belly? Also, I really wish someone had told me take off those sunglasses.)
The HalloweenFest at the Rec was a fun, chilly night! The snacks were heavenly (s'mores and caramel apples!) and the decorations were just the cutest. There were a dozen or so games and crafts for them to do inside, which was a lovely escape from the chill. It was deceptively cold; a last-minute grab of gloves became a lifesaver. Belle was very worried that she wouldn't look as fancy with sweats under her dress and a coat on...until we explained that Belle wore a coat when she went into the snow with the Beast. (And I talked a few friends into very emphatically telling her how fancy she looked, which she just beamed about.) They had a blast and were exhausted when we got home!
Costume event #3 was yet another Halloween carnival, this time at my high school. It was always fun to work the games when I was in high school, and it's really fun for me to see it from the parent perspective. We put the costumes on a 4th time for trick-or-treating down at the Rec with all of the employees. The kids got to go through the fire & police stations looking for treats, as well as visit Grandma in her office.
A few nights before Halloween, we carved our pumpkins. The kids were super jazzed about it, yet wanted to do zero of the work. As usual, both of them were too chicken to touch the gooey insides. They barely agreed to reach in the hollowed out pumpkins with a spoon. Look, we're not the play-in-the-mud types over here - not super surprising that my kids are prissy. But they were thrilled to design the jack-o-lantern faces and watch us carve them. Joe pointed to a jack-o-lantern on a place mat and wanted that exact one, while Brooke wanted something "reeeeally spooky". Nailed it.
We finally made it to Halloween night. All of those pre-Halloween events added up to a ton of candy - so much, in fact, that we didn't buy a single bag of candy to pass out this year! (No, we're not so mean that we don't let them have any candy. But our kids can't eat 60% of the candy because of allergies and another 20% b/c it's just too hard for their little mouths to chew. That pretty much leaves them with lollipops, Smarties, and M&M's.) Which ended up working out perfectly for us because Mother Nature went ahead and ruined Halloween this year. It poured the first hour and sprinkled the 2nd; we had 2 trick-or-treaters. The husband took the kids out with an umbrella (which everyone failed to stay under, apparently) and came back in the door 15 minutes later completely drenched. Between the rain and our neighbors' dogs, they were done. So they spent a quarter of their trick-or-treat time watching a Halloween episode of one of their favorite shows. We drove them around afterwards to finish up, so all was not lost. (Notice Belle's fancy rain boots?)
Though the kids were at a great age to appreciate the holiday and we had a ton of fun, I'm okay with the fact that October is over. I'm tired. I've carnival-ed out. And I'm thrilled to have a 2-week decoration-free break before the Christmas craziness begins. (You guys, my brain is already CHRISTMAS! LET'S DO THIS!)
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