Halloween fun!

The Halloween festivities seemed to last all month long which was a lot of fun and definitely built up the excitement for the big day.

On October 13th, Joseph had his first field trip to Bates Nut Farm where he got to go on a hayride, do a corn maze, go to the petting zoo and pick out his own pumpkin...oh, and ride a schoolbus for the first time!!!  He had a blast and my friend sent me this picture of him since I didn't go with him.

On the same day, Ella had a playdate with her preschool class at a different pumpkin patch so Julia, Charlotte, Nani and I attended with her and had a great day.  We fed the goats, went on a hayride, had lunch and also picked out pumpkins!  

Hot, dirty fun for all!

Charlotte is all ready for her first Halloween!

October 13th

On Friday, October 21st we headed over to the RB Community Park for a Halloween festival.  There were bounce houses, arts and crafts and lots of unhealthy but delicious foods!

On Sunday the 23rd, we went to Nani and Poppa's for the afternoon for an early Halloween celebration with everyone since Nani was going to be in New York for Halloween.  The kids had a blast eating donuts off of a string, making caramel apples, painting pumpkins and just hanging out together, of course!

Making ghost lollipops with Nani

 Two sweet Elsas!

So fun!!

 Drawing the five little pumpkins on the gate!

 Love this crew!!  

 Classic photo with Cole's huge smile and Charlotte's pout!!  

On the following weekend, the Westwood club had their annual Halloween festival so after Joseph's soccer game we made our way over.  They had all sorts of games set up where the kids could win tickets to then trade in for prizes, a bounce house and we even walked away as winners in the cake walk!

Waiting patiently, but not super happy, in line for the bounce house!

On the 30th we had Poppa over for dinner and to help us carve pumpkins.  The kids were a little skeptical at first about touching the inside of the pumpkin but they got on board and were all about it!

Well, Julia was still a little hesitant!

I  didn't get a picture of the finished products (oops!) but they looked great and we enjoyed roasted pumpkin seeds for the next few days!

We started the day at Joseph's school for the costume parade.  He lead his class in the parade as a SWAT member of the police force!

We left Joseph's school and went directly to Ella's school for her costume parade where she enjoyed waving and parading around as Elsa!

They then performed two Halloween songs that they have been practicing in class. Ella, sitting next to her bff, Sofia...another Elsa!

After Ella's parade we headed back to Josephs' class to check out their haunted houses that they created in groups the week before and stayed for his Halloween party.

Joseph's kindergarten class

Joseph had a half day so he came with us after his party and we went to pick up Ella and then headed home to get ready for the evening's festivities.  After an early dinner, we met our cul-de-sac neighbors at 5:30 to go trick or treating.  Joseph and Ella basically ran from house to house with the other older kids and Julia too her time walking in her "too big but oh so cute" dress up shoes.  She mastered the "trick or treat" and "thank you" in no time and pretty much filled up her bag!  By the end of the night Rich and I took turns carrying her in between houses and around 7:00 Ella told me that she was ready to go home so I took the girls home while Joseph and Rich stayed out for a little bit longer, but everyone was home by 7:30ish.  Charlotte slept through the entire thing in the carseat (we brought the double stroller).  We had a few trick or treaters come to our house which the kids enjoyed handing out the candy, rather fruit snacks since that is what I decided to give out this year which everyone seemed excited about, and by 8:00 we decided to turn off our lights so our kids could get to bed.

We couldn't convince Joseph to be Kristoff or Sven so couldn't quite all go with the Frozen theme but  still a great group of trick or treaters!

Charlotte's first Halloween!

Checking our their stash! Joseph asked earlier that afternoon if the candy fairy was going to come this year (we started it when he was 2 thanks to a friend's suggestion where the 'candy fairy' comes to take all of the candy to the soldiers overseas and leaves a small toy in its place.)  I wasn't going to do the candy fairy again this year since my original thought was that Joseph was probably old enough to understand that we didn't need all of the candy and that we could donate most of it to the soldiers without needing a fairy to come and do it but since he asked figured we'd prolong the "growing up" a bit longer!!  So, needless to say, the candy fairy came that night and left an electric toothbrush, which they were all thrilled about!!, and a book for each of them and took almost all of the candy.  Joseph's school had a fundraiser to collect the candy to give it to the soldiers overseas where they earned money for every pound so the fairy took it there.  They did keep a small bag and have enjoyed a piece  for dessert since Halloween.  I am happy to have it out of the house since it is way too tempting for me, too!!!  They seriously all got a TON of candy for being 5, 3 and 2 and I can't imagine what it is going to look like in the years to come.  Actually, I can imagine since I vividly remember sorting and trading my candy with my siblings growing up!!  I wish that I counted  how much they each had...next year.  It was such a fun Halloween season and it is still so hard to believe that the holidays are officially upon us!

Happy Halloween!