Fall Fun & Halloween Hoopla

Halloween is starting to be one of my favorite holidays. Growing up I always dreaded the holiday because of all the scary movies that were sure to come out with it. However, creating traditions with my own little family like going to a pumpkin patch, carving pumpkins, decorating the house, and dressing up in fabulous costumes have brought out the lighter side of Halloween. I am already thinking of what fun theme our family can be for Halloween next year!! This was Brinley's first pumpkin carving experience & her face looked less than excited about how the "goo" inside the pumpkin felt in her hands.
We invited our neighbors from our last apt to come and carve pumpkins with us. We had lots of fun & Mary and Margaret got a chance to carve pumpkins for the first time!! They did an awesome job!! Here are the final products: L to R Matt's Lord of the Flies pumpkin (that is what I named it), Mine-regular ol'happy face, Mary's (hers is this awesome wolf silhouette, but the intricate details of the eye got a little tricky & it broke off), and last Margarets cute little silly face!We pulled out the Halloween decorations & the box had a bunch of past costume remnants. The girls had fun putting stuff on and playing dress up. Trinity wouldn't pose for the camera, but my cute little clown Brinley did!I decorated our mantle & was pretty happy with how it turned out.I've had these decorations for about 5 years now & I don't know how many more years they will last with the kids! I think they have been broken & repaired about 4 times now!We knew the kids were too small to carve pumpkins with us, so I helped them decorate their little pumpkins. They LOVED them! L to R Brinley's Cat, Trinity's Witch, & Grayden's Ghost.Here's another collage of the rest of the decorations around & outside the house. I didn't realize until they were all up that I had a pretty strong spider theme going on!

On to the Trick or Treating!!

Matt the scare crow & his sleepy lion Grayden

Trinity pointing the way towards our next stop for candy.We had SO many strangers take our picture that night! I mean what do you say when they just gave you candy & then ask if they can take your picture? "Um, sorry no!"?

Party Time!!

After our first round of Trick-or-Treating we went to a Halloween party & had a great time!

There was lots of great food, cookie decorating for the kids, spray on tattoos, and plenty of friends to have fun with! I loved seeing everyone in their costumes!! We went for round 2 of Trick-or-Treating after the party & headed home with tired kids & heavy bags of candy!

I found Brinley in my bedroom trying to sneak a few more pieces of candy before bed.