Halloween 2014

I've never been a big Halloween person. I mean I liked it as a kid, of course, but as a teenager, college student, and young adult I was never too excited for October 31st. 

To me, it wasn't too much different than any other day...until I became a Mommy. I'm still not into the whole ghost and goblin thing, but I love to dress the kids up in their cute costumes and watch their excitement.

This year we got invited to our first Halloween party which was held by one of Caleb's classmates and a friend of mine from MOPS. The party was the day before Halloween and I didn't want to get the kids real costumes dirty, so early that day, I decided to go with some Hokie gear we had - a little football player, cheerleader, and Hokie bird mascot. Even Mommy had on her Hokie gear!

Look at those muscles!

No matter how big your muscles are, sometimes you just can't pull that hood off!

Caleb asked me what I was supposed to be and I said "a fan." He corrected me that I was a "Hokie mom." I'm not sure if that meant the team mom or the Hokie bird's momma, but I guess it was kind of both in this case.

It amazes me how quickly the kids can make friends. They walked right in and made themselves at home as if they all play together everyday. No warming up period needed!

It was a great group of parents and kids to play with too. Everyone made sure their kids were sharing and polite, so despite the large number of toddlers and preschoolers in one house, it made for a smooth party.

Reid was so excited to find a person his size. Only a few weeks apart in age, my son acted like he could hardly believe his eyes that there was another baby like him. A too cute encounter!

Caleb held strong, but the other two were totally pooped by the time we got home.

That night after the party, we did our annual pumpkin carving. Between the fall decor I'd purchased for Reid's birthday, field trips, and pumpkin patch visits, we had collected quite a few pumpkins to chose from. However, we ended up deciding on the ones we got at Valley Star farm, since our intent when purchasing those was to make them in to jack-o-lanterns.

Granny, Grandma, Granddaddy, and my mom came to be a part of the fun like usual. Granny was eager to get started and jumped right in there with the kids.

Caleb didn't think much of cleaning out the seeds, but Hadley and Reid didn't mind helping some. Actually, Reid had to be watched like a hawk because he kept trying to eat them!

It wasn't long before we all got our hands dirty. Caleb had a drawing that he made earlier that evening to show me exactly how he wanted his face to look, and we went from there. 

We talked about how the inside of the pumpkin is like our lives, messy with sin until we let Jesus clean us up and put a light inside.

Quit tasting it, Reid!

The best entertainment of the whole evening was Reid's determination to eat those pumpkins. Every other second he was taking a lick or getting a handful to quickly shove in his mouth until we fished it out again. The grandparents just giggled and giggled over this little mess.

The grown-ups did most of the work so maybe we should claim these pumpkins, but the kids were pretty proud of their creations.

Shifting gears...Another reason I didn't have the kids wear their real costumes to the party on Thursday was that I couldn't find Caleb's suit. When I was little, Mom made me a pumpkin costume and after mentioning it to Caleb, he wanted to wear it. Banking on the fact that we already had this laying around at Mom's since I'd seen it in the past few years or so somewhere, I just assumed we'd be able to find it. To my surprise though, we never did. 

Dave tried to look for one in a couple stores near where he worked that day to see if we could find an alternative, but they just didn't seem to make pumpkin suits in preschooler size. So, here I was, the night before Halloween, Caleb with his heart set on being a pumpkin, and no suit. I posted on Facebook in desperation hoping someone might be able to help, but got no responses at first and ran out late that evening to see what I could find. Target had closed for the night and Walmart had slim pickin's. I'd looked at a Youtube video on how to make your own costume before I left though and bought a few supplies just in case to see what I could do.

At first I thought to use Dave's old orange shirt (left) with a few couch pillows. Then I found a couple smaller orange shirts (right) at Walmart I thought might work better. I even tried turning a Finding Nemo costume (middle) inside out to use but it was too small.

Finally, I remembered a reversible camo and orange puffer vest my friend Lori had given Caleb. With the help of a little felt I bought at Walmart and some tape, we had a face. Adding the hat Mom made for me years ago (the only piece of the original costume we found), we had a pumpkin!

A couple friends offered pumpkin suits and I went to pick them up Halloween morning to try, but Caleb really liked the costume we made. He'd asked me to cut the face just like his jack-o-lantern and didn't like one of the other costumes because it had a happy face instead of a scary one like he wanted. The other option was another homemade costume and was super cute, but it was a bit too big for him. Though it wasn't the best looking thing in the world, Caleb was happy with what we came up with, so we went with it.

Halloween morning, we started the day by playing around the house. The older two and I even read some books NaNa got them for the occasion. (I was proud of her for cutting way back this year. :) No candy!)

Around lunch time, we went to Granny's because Dan and Bell were coming for a visit too. Granny has always been one to get decked out for Halloween and didn't disappoint this year. Her house wasn't decorated like usual, but she had her face painted, a spooky shirt, skeleton earrings, and a cape to greet the kids. She also had bags of goodies waiting for everyone.

Someone's surprised it looks like!

Reid got a flashlight.

Aunt Debbie got Reid some cars.

Caleb got his first Transformer from Aunt Debbie too.

My mom and other grandparents dropped by at one point to see the kids, so we got everyone's costumes on. The great-grandmas and kids even had a parade through the house.

He was trying hard to smile for me.

Shake your tail feather.

Caleb's school had an event called Hallelujah night as an alternative to trick-or-treating that evening. Basically it was like a indoor carnival type thing set up with games and candy. Thinking this would be easier than dragging three little people from house to house, it sounded like a good idea to us.

Getting everyone in costume that night was a bit of a mess though. Caleb's felt face had fallen off his pumpkin suit and his hat wouldn't stay on so we had to do some work with that. Hadley's hat also kept slipping and by the time we tried to get family pics done, no one wanted to cooperate. In the movie in my mind, I thought, "we'll get these cute family pics of us in our farm themed costumes," not expecting how much effort and tears it would take to get us all together. The photos turned out well enough, but boy oh boy it was not the easy Hokie photo session we'd had the day before.

I bought Hadley's costume at Gymboree on clearance a couple years ago and thought she could wear it last year but loved the cabbage patch idea we used instead when I saw it. I was happy the strawberry suit still fit.

I thought Caleb's pumpkin suit would go with Hadley's costume, and when I found the chicken one, the whole farm idea fell together. I love when families dress in theme together. I have friends who do this every year for solidarity. :)

Reid looks like he is about to lay an egg....You're a rooster, Buddy!

Old McKinstry had a farm....e...i...e...i....o

My costume was a cow suit I had back in the fifth grade. :) Dave's was one leftover from my sister, but hey...it worked!

The school event did save us a lot of walking and the kids enjoyed it, but nothing is too easy with our clan. Most of the games difficult for Hadley, but Caleb could do majority of them and they got lots of candy. I did miss the excitement of seeing them trick-or-treat though, so who knows for next year.

Caleb keeps saying he wants to go back to have his arm repainted. He wasn't happy when he had to take a bath that night after we got home.

Another holiday down...only one more before Christmas!