Halloween 2013

Halloween 2013

October 26th and October 31

Livi had the blessing of trick or treating FOUR times this year! First, at our ward Trunk or Treat activity; second, along Montana Avenue; third, at Riot Games; fourth, around our apartment complex. Needless to say, she's got this whole trick or treating and eating candy thing down. We loved every minute of it.

I was in Utah for our ward Trunk or Treat, but Nana, Papa, Auntie Allie, Daddy and Will accompanied Olivia. Quite the entourage for one little pirate princess. From what I gather, they had a fantastic time and Olivia insisted on Allie taking her everywhere. Not a big surprise given she wouldn't leave Allie's side while she was here. There was a great turnout, lots of great costumes, and of course, a friendly environment for the littles.

For our official Halloween day, we went all out. It was our first year to really dress up as a family. We were pirates! All inspired by Livi's recent love and fascination with pirates (which started with her watching Peter Pan of course). She's been a pirate princess for the past couple of months, and so I wasn't surprised when she told me she wanted to be a pirate princess for Halloween. It was an easy decision to dress us all up as pirates - though I had originally planned for Will to be a parrot (what pirate doesn't have his parrot?), I ran out of time, energy, and will power to make his costume; he joined us as a little pirate.

We received SO many compliments while trick or treating along Montana, and we were the subjects of many a random photo. Will was a trooper, and quite frankly, so was I! I carried him for nearly the entire time. 17 lbs of pirate cuteness proved to be exhausting by the end. Aaron took over for a few minutes - just enough time for Will to spit up on Aaron's pirate shirt - which he was borrowing from his boss at Riot. Great timing and aim, son. Livi wandered in and out of stores with either her friend Liv or with Daddy. Mommy joined the action at the end. Too bad they only give out candy to the kiddos! We met up with our friends the Reynolds for the first part of our Montana Trick or Treating. Livi and Liv are the cutest little besties, they kept "sharing" and "trading" candy (they really just took each other's candy, albeit amicably).  We only spent half the time we did last year since we arrived late and wanted to make it to Riot on time. As we were leaving, we saw some fantastic neighborhoods to bring the kids back to next year.

Riot throws quite the Halloween party. They also make it a friendly environment for the Riotlings. There was great food, games, and of course, candy! We were yet another hit, though Aaron's coworkers were bummed that Will wasn't a parrot. We had good intentions to go trick or treating, but ended up spending our time visiting with Aaron's team. Our kids were such good sports - smiling, pirating, and chatting with everyone. Will finally threw in the towel though, he had been hungry long enough. Can't blame him, poor little guy had to watch the rest of us pig out on candy! It was awesome seeing Aaron's team though - I hadn't seem them since the Dominican Republic. Great company, great people. We are truly blessed.

Aaron put Will down for the night when we got home, but Livi and I decided to live it up - going on one last trick or treating adventure around our complex. Liv and Laura Reynolds joined us (Liv's second run). Because Liv and Livi were the only littles that trick or treated here this year, we got a TON of candy from our neighbors, in fact, more than Livi had gathered at the previous three trick or treating trips combined! Let's just say that Mom and Dad have enjoyed Olivia's spoils as much as she has, although the candy has now been put away to be used as rewards/motivators.

I decided to throw together a last minute Halloween Party for the kids the morning of Halloween (I decided the day before); Lucy, Eve and Emily Ames came to party with us. We made Halloween crafts, played Halloween games, and ate a Halloween lunch! So worth it, and I definitely want to do another next year with some more notice so we can invite more friends.

Bowling with a pumpkin, hitting toilet paper ghost pins!

Rather than make a bat, Lucy made a cat! 

A few of our projects, the ghost feet are missing the googly eyes, as are the spiders!

Mummy pizzas and cat cupcakes for lunch!

It was such a fantastic Halloween. Made up for the fact we didn't make it to the pumpkin patch OR carve pumpkins! Next year. There's always next year. :)