Boy howdy.

I’m still wiping the sweat from my brow from all the Halloween hoopla last week.

I’m not going to lie, Halloween is no piece of cake…especially when you have four girls to doll up multiple times. And to be honest, I was pretty much so tired and overwhelmed with everything else going on in my life that I was wishing at one point Halloween would just mysteriously pass us by and we’d just forget to dress up.

I had it all pictured in my mind: It would be the day after Halloween and my kids would wake up and look their sleepy eyes up questioningly at me and say, “wait, what about Halloween? What about our costumes? What about all our candy?” And I’d crouch down by them and take their cute little faces in my hands and say, “Oh, I’m so sorry my sweet little dears, but we missed it this year! Don’t worry though, Thanksgiving is right around the corner and we can dress up as Pilgrims and Indians! Won’t that be fun? Let’s make cookies today…they’re way better than candy anyway.” And just like that their cloudy, sleepy faces would brighten right up and they’d run out and play.

There’d be no black make-up to scrub off of faces and clothes and countertops, no candy wrappers strewn around the house, no temptation to steal all the Twix and KitKats from my kids’ filled-to-the-brim-with-never-ending candy pillowcases, and no piles of costume accessories waiting in bedroom corners to be washed and put away…and no tummy-aches from sugar overload.

But there’d also be no memories. And that’s just a sad, sad thought.

Really, I normally LOVE Halloween. It just took a little bit to remind me this year. I don’t know why in the world things are still so crazy in my life. Last year I was wading through countless Christmas photoshoots and making home-made Halloween outfits with my kids, for crying out loud, wasn’t I?

So, I pulled myself together and I must admit, we had a fun Halloween…even if we had to cram in the pumpkin carving right by the skin of our teeth once again. The Fall Festival at our kids’ school finally got me back in the spirit again. I love seeing all the creative costumes people come up with. I love to see the absolute delight of those cute kids turning into something totally new.

These old pictures make me so nostalgic and make me fall in love with Halloween all over again:

1997:I have no idea where 1998 is, darn it!

1999:

2000:2001:
Grace was born…not sure where she was in this pic…

2002:

2003:
2004: (we started taking “all-the-kids-in-the-same-spot” pictures this year…)
2005:
2006:

2007:
2008:
2009: (this year our tradition of the “same-spot-pose-picture” failed. Lucy was too grumpy from her nap before we left for our party/trick-or-treating, and Max was out too late for Lu to stay up after all the craziness…so one picture has Max, one has Lu…eating a sucker)
But before Halloween night we had other parties. One of them was our ward celebration where they take family pics:

Claire was a bumble bee just for this night, Lu was in her glory as a black cat (complete with “Meows” every once in a while, and I, well, I was a Mom):

We carved our pumpkins on Halloween morning…along with a soccer game and Elle and I hosting our Mother/Daughter book club (this equals a crazy morning).But as always, it was worth it to cram it in…
Poor Lu. She sure had a tough time waking up from her nap.
…but we thanked our lucky stars that Dora happened to be a black cat this year on tv…I think that’s the only reason why Lucy would even dress up. She loved this outfit (thanks Rebecca!) I think she liked how the black spandex accentuated her figure.And oh my word, she really “got” the Trick-or Treating” thing this year. It was so fun to watch her hold her cute little friend’s hand and go around to collect candy. She really doesn’t know what candy is at this point, so she was just in it for the fun.

We had our annual street potluck party complete with a portable haunted house. I love these neighbors so much!

Max’s outfit (if you call a karate headband an outfit…) changed somehow to a gray-haired guy by the end of the night. Hmmm.

And Elle. Well, Elle hit the jackpot this year. Yep, she was the lucky recipient of a FIVE POUND candy bar. This guy in our neighborhood apparently works for Hershey’s Chocolate Company and gives away one of these babies each year. All the neighbor kids talk about how excited they are to go to “Mr. Hershey”‘s house all Halloween week. He gives out all kinds of lavish candy, but this is the mother of it all, and Elle got it. In case you can’t tell, she’s kinda excited about it.

Similar Posts

9 Comments

  1. I just posted our Halloween pictures, and have to say "amen!" to your post. With just three little girls (for now) it's such a circus getting them all ready. And they love it. And in the end we do, too. But yeesh. At some point I'm ready to run out the door yodeling.

  2. Wow you know how to pack it in a post! Color, life, history and all those cute little characters. I love your traditions in pictures. Your kids are just so gorgeous! Glad you made it through Halloween!

  3. What?? A five pound candy bar?? My girls were psyched to get the normal sized Butterfinger from "that house." you know the ones that give out the big ones. Maybe we'll be that house one year. Just for one year!
    Fabulous pics and great costumes.Love the trip back in time!

  4. AHHHH NOW THAT I SEE THE FRONT OF YOUR HOUSE I SOOO KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE. MY HUSBAND AND I ALMOST BOUGHT THAT SAME EXACT HOUSE. SERIOUSLY EVERYTHING EXACT ON THE FRONT! STILL A SMALL WORLD.

    GOTTA LOVE ALL YOUR MEMORY RECAP PHOTOS! I WISH WE COULDA SKIPPED HALLOWEEN TOO.

  5. Elle and that year supply of chocolate is the best, and your pictures are especially inviting and vibrant. I was kinda sad that I only took one picture this entire Halloween. What's wrong with me, Shawni?

  6. Katy, I wonder what's wrong with ME. Why am I compelled to take SO many pictures! My poor, poor kids. I guess they'll be happy in the long run…I hope!

  7. I'm so glad Hilary linked you up again today, because I'd lost your blog link.

    I love Halloween, but this year was hard for me too, so I totally understand that feeling! I think you redeemed it quite well though! Everybody looks wonderful and obviously had a great time!

    And my favorite part was seeing your link to last year, and your Romanian surorile picture. Fun times. 🙂

    Lara Neves

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *