It seems that Halloween is a very busy day for us each year, especially as we start adding more kids into the school system. Each one has different activities and parties that day, followed by dinner with family at our house and trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. Steve traditionally takes the whole day off work so that we can tag-team and be sure to attend as many activities as possible. I also arranged for a sub for myself for teaching that night ...
We began the day by dropping the girls off at school as a family. It was misting rain while I made a couple of trips from the van into the building to deliver Sophia's treats (candy corn cupcakes and witch hat cookies) and the craft items for Sam's party. Then, I hopped back into the van and the rest of us (Steve, the boys and me) headed to St. John's for Jack's field trip to the pumpkin patch.
Jack and his friend, Tyler:
It was a dreary morning and very muddy, but we made the best of it. Jack wore his Batman costume and managed to avoid most of the mud while wearing it on the hayride. He picked out a pumpkin, a gourd and a small ear of Indian corn that he proudly displayed later on our front porch.
The Indian corn was pretty dried up due to the lack of rain this summer ... and it was already picked over for the season, but Jack managed to find a decent ear to take home.
It was cold ... but Jimmy was a real trooper and took everything in.
We followed that up the hayride with donuts and cider before heading home.
That gave me less than an hour to change my clothes (Wonder Woman for the day!), grab a quick bite to eat and then head up to the school to be there for Sophia's party. She was so happy to see me and I helped her with her craft and snack and then got her into her costume -- Catwoman (Jack's personal sidekick).
I then zipped down to Samantha's room and helped her get dressed and before meeting up with Steve and the boys so that we could watch the annual Halloween Costume parade. The elementary students follow the middle school band and walk from the school ... downtown ... and then back again. It's a pretty good distance, but the whole town looks forward to it and so do the kids.
Clapping for the parade in his dinosaur costume:
A skeleton bride, Sam's choice for a costume this year. I made sure to paint her fingernails black, added some makeup and spray-painted some flowers so that they would look dead. Overall, it turned out pretty well.
Afterwards, Steve headed home with the boys to get them down for naps and I stayed at the school for Samantha's party. I was in charge of the craft and we made the cutest light-up Halloween characters. The kids got to choose which one they wanted to make and then followed my directions to complete it. Absolutely adorable!
Once school was dismissed, Samantha and I met up with Sophia and made our way home. The girls spent a little time "winding down" while I was prepping our dinner. We enjoyed tacos with Steve's dad and my parents before the kids got back into their costumes -- ready and rearing to go trick-or-treating.
Steve borrowed a golf cart from a neighbor (best idea ever!) and we hit as many houses as we could before retiring for the night.
It was definitely cold (it is EVERY year!), but the kids were as happy as can be to be riding around and not walking ...
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