Halloween 2015

October 2015

Halloween seems to get longer every year! With Trunk or Treat, school and work Halloween parties, and the actual holiday, it's now a week long celebration! Should I complain? Probably not. What's a little more candy, right? 

We celebrated first at our church's Trunk or Treat on the 24th, where we all dressed up as villains and I even won the award for the "most bewitching costume". We scored TONS of candy that night, played some cute games, and ate some great food.

Next we partied with Riot Games at Shaun's Pumpkin Patch on the 28th. We loved getting out with the other Riot families, enjoyed some pizza (though it was a bit on the cold side by the time we finally decided to eat, lol), got attacked by goats in the petting zoo area, watched the kids bounce in the bounce house (and nearly out of it!), got glitter tattoos, and of course picked out our pumpkin to carve. The kiddos loved every minute of it. And it was fun to share it with Lala who was in town visiting. We really do work for the best of companies. 

Olivia's preschool Fall Festival (aka Halloween Party) on the 30th was also a success. Short parade, potluck lunch and snacks, pumpkin decorating, face painting, crafts, and the kids performed 3 darling Halloween songs at the end. It was a perfect hour of madness and fun. Teacher Dorie and her staff work wonders with our sugar intoxicated and Halloween hyped little ones. Olivia's Maleficent costume was a bit on the ragged side by the end of the day, after a full day of play - but she was darling nevertheless. She took it off shortly after the parade so she could get into the full party groove. Will dressed up to party, and he was very content to be Darth Vader the rest of the day. No mask of course. Because, he is, after all, the REAL Darth Vader. (Whenever he sees a picture of Darth Vader he shouts, "It's me!")

And finally came the BIG day, October 31st. Aaron dressed up, Will wore his mask for the photo op, Olivia decided she wanted to be my dalmatian after seeing the costume Lala had brought, Lala by far had the best makeup, and we were off to an evening trick or treating along Montana and 16th in Santa Monica. The shops had mostly run out of candy, we started MUCH later this year - but we spent more time trick or treating along 16th and the surrounding neighborhood, checking out some spooky homes and loving the decor! Our costumes were all a big hit - and we fought the crowds to get a bit of candy along the way. The kids were done after an hour. Shorter than I had expected for sure. But, we had to laugh when Olivia couldn't even stay awake long enough to get through the drive through for dinner! We headed home to check in with my Dad who had held down the fort while we were away - dental procedure recoveries do not make for the most comfortable of times after all. With the kids cleaned up and in bed, the adults enjoyed some of the spoils and put our feet up - another successful Halloween! 

Before carving our pumpkin, I asked Olivia to draw for me what she wanted our jack o latern to look like. Mom and I were both expecting a pencil sketch done in a few minutes. When she brought out this colored masterpiece, we were shocked! But I was ever determined to make her design a reality. The only hang up we had was when Olivia couldn't understand why the bow wasn't on top of the pumpkin like she had drawn. Lala explained that we couldn't very well paint the air! :) We hung her design picture right above the finished product on our porch.