Halloweeeen!

As a kid, Halloween is absolutely awesome. As an uptight parent, Halloween can be a bit of a nightmare. Trying (and failing) to get the kids to settle down enough to eat a good dinner before they go out trick-or-treating, and then the repeating sugar highs and crashes as they make their way through their candy, not wanting to eat any real food for meals, only what's in their bucket…. I'm determined to find a way to make Halloween more enjoyable for me one of these days. Maybe it will come with the empty nest. Or meditation. 

Anyway. 

I do really love so much about the holiday, though. Carving pumpkins is a blast and I absolutely love to see my kids in their cute costumes. Just the fact that the kids are having fun makes it more fun for me. Okay, maybe I don't mind Halloween so much after all. And I'm sure that I'll miss it all terribly when my kids are older. I guess meditation it is!

This year both Bud and Pen carved their own pumpkins (and Ginger declined to participate), so that left me with only two pumpkins to carve. So much easier than in the past. I'm really proud of how well Bud and Pen did with their pumpkins, especially considering the difficult patterns they chose. 

Pumpkins from L to R: Pen's, Edith's, Bud's, Big's

I didn't take any pictures of the Halloween parade at the elementary school because they always turn out blurry and I hate feeling like I'm holding up the parade line to try to take a usable shot. Just know that it felt long and the kids were cute. Ha!

On Halloween night, Pen went out to dinner at a friend's house followed by trick-or-treating and a movie and Ginger had a friend over to watch a movie. After I told Ginger she could have someone over, I realized that it meant that I would once again miss seeing Edith go house to house so an adult could be present. Bummer. Rophone says she was super cute and narrated the experience non-stop. I guess between both her and Big his ears and brain got a workout. Next year I'll be sure to go along.

I loved that Edith became the 5th child to wear the bear costume we bought for Pen. Big went in the police officer costume worn by Bud last year, Bud was a crossing guard wizard, Ginger dressed as herself with a witch's hat on, and Pen glammed it up 50s style. Super cute, all of them, if I do say so myself. 

I mentioned to Edith that she was looking half-asleep in the photos…

Big told me exactly what kind of mustache his costume needed, and he was right. It was perfect. I wish I would have taken a picture without him smiling so you could see just how great it looked, but I think you can still tell.

Bud combined a few costumes in the bin to put his crossing guard wizard look together. (Ginger did the same a few years ago, with the addition of fairy wings.) I'm glad my kids aren't afraid to think outside the box. 

Ginger stole the hat from Bud for a quick photo op:

Just as the last of the light was waning, Pen was finally ready for me to take some pictures of her costume. Thank heavens I have a really nice camera.