Halloween 2012

Halloween went on as expected. Except for the weather, which was the warmest Halloween on record for our location (you never know what you'll get here- snow/horrible rain/sunshine, its a total gamble). I'm not complaining, just stating the facts.

When discussing with the children about what they wanted to dress as, Amelia was pretty adamant about being a cowgirl, but it needed to also be a princess, so that was easily achieved with gluing a crown onto a pink cowgirl hat, and she quickly became a rodeo princess. Miles decided he wanted to be Batman so I went online and ordered him a costume on Amazon a few weeks ahead so the pressure would be off. As for Brodrick, he is in the thick of a skeleton/bones obsessions. We have a song DVD that has this version of Dem Bones, that he cannot get enough of. (Watch the video- your kids will love it!) As luck would have it, most Halloween decor has bones in/on them, and he experienced excitement upon seeing skeletons, rather than fear/disgust like Amelia did at his age. I do not like Halloween decor or scary decorations but am not too creeped out about his obsession since we all have a skeleton and the bones talked about in the video. Brodrick wanted to be "DEM BONES!" Since the The Children's Place site was out of the costume, I called around and located two costumes- one for Miles, (since he likes the video clip and bones too, though not to the extreme level of his little brother) and one for Brodrick at a store several miles away. We made a drive to the store for the super awesome costumes, complete with gloves and hats.

We went to a ward Halloween party the week before Halloween, and the kids had lots of fun playing games, and the food was delicious. We carved pumpkins the Monday before Halloween for FHE, though the pictures didn't turn out too well. Once they were finished, we put them on our front steps. I planned to take pictures of the kids with their finished pumpkins later since it was so dark and past bed time. That plan was foiled when early Wednesday, Miles became a regular pumpkin smasher and heaved them as hard and as far as he could from our front steps to our yard. Read: total boy. I was rather frustrated, but in retrospect, should have taken pictures for proof of the destruction. 

Bags from the dollar store that I sewed decals on to personalize them. Horse for Amelia, Bat for Miles, and "Dem Bones" for Brodrick. The kids loved them- and I was thrilled to toss out those ridiculous plastic jack-o-lantern trick-or-treating buckets that don't stack and take up so much space to store!

At the ward Halloween Party- Brodrick wanted a football painted on his cheek. He was very serious for posing.

We didn't find Miles Batman costume until we were just walking out the door so he went to the ward party as a pirate.

Round Up Princess

Showing off more of his costume that he still LOVES and wears to bed as pj's (they also glow in the dark).

The best group shot I could get...

Picture proof that we actually did carve pumpkins.

Getting ready to cut out Amelia's face she drew all herself.

Halloween night, we went trick-or-treating with two of my sisters and their kids. We did a few houses out of our neighborhood, and then came back to trick-or-treat in our own ward boundaries.  That morning, Brodrick woke up at 4am, and by 5pm could not stay awake. He fought as long and as hard as he could to stay awake- (I had tried repeatedly to put him down for a nap so he wouldn't miss out on his first memorable Halloween) but in the end, he slept right through the trick-or-treating. Miles didn't last too long either. After a few houses, not even the motivation of candy could keep him going. He asked to be carried back home so he could go to bed. It was a school night after all so we didn't stay out too late.

Batman Miles!

Such a cute cowgirl!

Amelia and Miles with their cousins, Jenna, Talitha, Miles, Abrea, and Kierra.

Not pictured was a super scary costume a guy in our ward made a few years ago and wore around while he took his daughter tirck-or-treating. It was pretty creapy looking (Think ghost of christmas past from A Christmas Carol, but with a skeleton face, red eyes that light up, and twice the size you would expect. Even the arms were over sized attachments to the guys real arms and Amelia was pretty traumatized, even know the guy was just wearing a costume. After Miles had already turned in for the night, we went to another house in our ward, and that family had made a haunted house in their garage. Most kids loved it, but Amelia is not most kids, and even though I was with her, ended up carrying her for more than the last half while she cried. I was thankful that the boys didn't have experiences like that, as they have a harder time making the distinction between people in lifelike costumes and reality.

Case and point: Halloween can be fun. It's so fun to dress up, but I hate being scared. I personally HATE feeling afraid, and was disapointed that Amelia experienced that extra, un-needed unsettling feeling. Thankfully she recovered quickly, but in my world, there would be no blood/death/fear/scary things involved with Halloween. It would just be a fun experience all around.