Halloween

Years before we had children we talked about Halloween and whether or not we would celebrate it when we did finally have our own little goblins. Prince Charming and I both grew up "doing Halloween" and we loved it. Well, truth be told, I always HATED the dressing up part, but I loved the candy, the jack-o-lanterns and the excitement of being outside after dark :)

It's funny, we both have such vivid memories of the exact route we took in our neigbhorhoods, what candy each neighbor was "famous" for giving (the lady around the corner from us gave us dimes...really???), our dad's "checking" the candy and eating a good 10% in the process, and the mad rush about an hour before trick-or-treating to get the costume together. We also remember getting older and going to "the good neighborhoods" so we could get even more candy!!

I find these memories sweet and fun and part of childhood. So we have chosen to celebrate Halloween in much the same way. My kiddos are so young that the last few years have really been, mommy picks out cute costume, kids scream when you put it on, you showcase them to grandparents and the few neighbors that care, then you go home and get them to bed by 7:30. This year Miss M was way more interested and very vocal about her costume and trick-or-treating.

We had a ballerina and a pirate. I do refuse to spend much money on Halloween costumes, it's just not in our budget! I was able to make Miss M's costume using our dress-up box and just bought a little "bling" to make it special. JB's costume proved more difficult and I ended up buying a five dollar job from Five Below...great deal! Prince Charming whipped up a hook so JB could be Captain Hook, he loved it!

Trick-or-treating was lots of fun, they loved knocking on doors, saying "Trick or Treat", "thanks for the treat" and Miss M's line for the night..."And a Happy Trick or Treat to you".

Our doorbell only rang one time! There were about 10 jr. high girls, some in costume, some not. I gave them candy anyway, they were very polite and giggly!

I did go in a few Halloween stores looking for accessories and did find them to be creepy and sleezy and overall full of a very "dark feeling". Lesson learned, stay out of the Halloween stores, make fun homemade costumes, enjoy seeing neighbors and take lots of pictures!

I tried to post a cute pic but it will only show html code...maybe I'll post some later :)