Happy Halloween

We tried something new this year.... and it will be a new tradition in our house. We did a pre-Halloween photo session. The girls were super excited to try on their costumes & had fun being dressed up. There wasn't any pressure to be ready to go anywhere at a certain time. They just had to look cute & have fun. If we didn't have the pre-pictures of the girls in their costumes, there would be NO pictures of Halloween. That's right.... I didn't take ONE picture on Halloween night. Trying to get the kids ready, but not too early before trick or treating started was a challenge. They were excited. Paige knew what to expect & Claire was just excited because she knew that candy was involved. My did some "practice" trick or treating to make sure the girls remembered their manners (just in case). My sister in-law came over with her little boy who's Claire's age. RIght before it was time to finish up the last minute adjustments & head out the door our sweet Reese joined the party & wanted to eat... right at that moment. That caused frustration on the part of the girls because they were soooo excited, they honestly couldn't wait. Every time someone knocked on the door, Claire would run to the door & cry "I want candy" or "I want to trick or treat". She just didn't quite get it.

I took the girls trick or treating while Mark stayed home with Reese & passed out candy (it was too cold to have her out & we didn't even bother to dress her up). We went across the street and back up our street before we decided to take a break. We went to a whopping 10 houses, maybe? We walked in the door to find a crying Reese, who cried the entire 15 minutes we were gone and who was fine as soon as I held her..... such a Mama's girl!
Mark took Paige back out because she was a blast & totally got it. Claire peed her pants as soon as a trick treater knocked on the door. She just stood there (cute black kitty costume and all) & said "I have to go potty". It was great fun & so you can see why there wasn't really a great opportunity for picture taking =)

We did start our day off by carving pumpkins. Reese was a good sport & slept through it all. It was nice to have 2 free hands & not worry about what she was doing. Mark carved his annual pumpkin masterpiece.... this year it was Minnie Mouse. Paige had more fun sticking toothpicks in the pumpkins.. aka porcupine King. She was hilarious and so much fun this year.

Kudos & a HUGE thank you goes to Mark's Mom for making our little witch & black cat costume. Maybe next year I'll have learned to sew enough to make the myself? She did a great job without a pattern & brought my creative ramblings to fruition. Thank you Carey!

Reese was asleep during the initial photo shoot (for most of it anyway) so we "reinacted". Unfortunately she had more bumps & bruises, but she was being so fun. Paige wanted in on the action too & loves to hold her baby sister. I'm thanful for hand-me-downs. I posted pictures of Claire in the same fairy costume 2 years ago... (you'll have to look at the older posts). I ordered a pumpkin costume to coincide with our costume theme this year, but it didn't come in time. It showed up on Nov 5th so I'll be sending it back.



Can you get more festive than a jack-o-lantern pizza?





You can't really tell how big these pumpkins are from the picture, but had to get a before shot & give kudos to myself. Walmart had these BIG pumpkins for $1.98 the week of Halloween. Earlier in the month they were $4.50 (which is still SO cheap). It pays to procrastinate sometimes...haha





I love this picture! Grammy asked the kids how old they were. Jacob held up his two fingers & Claire was trying to figure out how you do that? So serious =)






I was trying to be "festive". These are my pumpkin biscuits. Paige had fun helping me cut them out out. Eat your heart out Martha Stewart!






Trick or treating was hard work... Paige NEVER falls asleep on the couch. She put her jammies on & was out in 5 minutes. Couldn't resist....