Happy Halloween!!

I love Halloween. I love the decorations, the parties, the costumes, and the candy of course :-)
I especially love it because it reminds me of my Dad. I have many fond memories of Halloween as a kid. He wrote a song that he would play on his guitar for us about Halloween night and it was about us in our costumes. I only remember the first line now, wish I knew more, but I find myself singing it to my kids around Halloween.

 It's even more fun now that the kids are getting a little bigger and they get to have school parties and look forward to trick or treating. Of course Parker now thinks it's only cool if he can wear something scary or gross. And KC just wants to stick with what he's been before. Clay changed his mind every day about his costume but when it came down to it he was more than happy to wear what we already had. And as the last little guy Quinn got to wear all 3 costumes we had that he fit into. They just had to be worn one last time.

Here's the bunch the night of the ward party. It was pretty fun even though the hours leading up to it were spent in a mad scramble trying to get the last few things needed for costumes. Quinn got to wear the monkey costume that I made for Parker when he was a toddler. Its been fun seeing them all wear it.    

A few weeks before Halloween we went up to Heber to ride the Heber Creeper. They had a fun kids activity where they got to get a pumpkin and decorate it and then ride the train. It was not as exciting as they made it sound, but it was fun to do. Parker pretended to hate it, but the next week at school he did one of his daily writing assignments about it and how fun it was. Somehow he's turning out like his mother was and doesn't dare let anyone know hes enjoying himself on family outings. Grandma Kathy went with us and even though the train ride left a lot to be desired it was still pretty fun. 

Have you ever seen a scarier dragon??

 

This time Quinn got to be a Raccoon

Then comes Halloween night and the real fun starts. (notice that the front door is a different color than the day of the ward party? Yep I found a blue that is way better and now I don't live in the crazy blue door house. Just the crazy house) 

We had fun decorating our pumpkins. I can't wait till the day when the kids can carve their own. It pretty much came down to the kids drawing a picture on them then going out to play while Aaron and I carved them. But the real fun was making the spiders. The kids helped me collect sticks and we spray painted the pumpkins black. 

Time to Trick or Treat!!!

Aaron was awesome and went to work super early, like 5:30 early, and so he was able to be home early to trick or treat with us. And even though I know he was dead on his feet he did it with a smile and the kids loved it. Thanks Daddy! 

And you'll see Quinn modeling yet another costume for your viewing pleasure. Gotta love the chicken costume!! I'm actually a little sad that I won't have any more little ones to wear the cute little costumes he wore this year. Why do they have to get bigger??

\

Quinn didn't quite get the hang of the whole trick or treating thing. He wanted to hold the candy in his hand and if you tried to put it in his bucket down on the ground he went with a fit and wouldn't stop until the candy was returned to him. But then he'd throw it and yell and cry until you retrieved it again. He went around the block once and then Grandma took him home and they gave out the candy at our house. 

Clay loved it this year, until his feet started to hurt because he put shoes on that didn't really fit him anymore. So he made it a few more blocks than Quinn and then got a piggy back ride on Mom back home while the other boys went with Daddy some more. 

Then everyone got home in time to watch The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, because whats a holiday without Charlie Brown??