Finally--Halloween

I promised that I would get around to posting about our Halloween, so I finally decided to bite the bullet and get it done. In years past I've always wished I had more than one opportunity for the kiddos to wear their costumes. One short evening doesn't seem like enough. So this year we found more activities. Actually we may have over done it. We had FIVE Halloween events. I'll try to give our festivities justice in photos:

Event #1: Boo Ha Ha trick-or-treating. It's one of the great things about living on Brookside, you walk out your door and there you are in the midst of the madness. Baby Lam didn't go trick or treating down Peoria, the timeframe didn't work well with her nap schedule. And you don't want a fussy, tired kitty at Halloween parties planned for later in the day...

Event #2: Halloween Parade--again...walk out your front door right onto the parade route. It's great. The kids loved it. But Baby Lam only last about 20 minutes. She wanted to be part of the parade and wouldn't be still. So she and WM headed back to the house to watch college football.

Here we are before heading out to Boo Ha Ha. Katie was a Snow Princess and Patrick was a race car driver (or as we found out, Tony Stewart, the race car driver).

Event #3: Halloween Party at Cedar Ridge--I wanted to the take the kiddos to this last year, but Baby Lam was itty bitty, so we opted to stay home. But we made it this year and grandma got to come along! So what was the best part? Katie won the costume contest!! She was SUPER proud of herself and marched right up to the front to receive her prize. WM actually had to go up and get her because she wanted to stay standing in front of everyone. We had a great time and WM and Patrick went on the "spooky" haunted hay ride. WM said it wasn't spooky at all, but Patrick sure thought it was. But as he said "I was very brave and didn't cry." Katie didn't have any part of anything that might be remotely "spooky." She stay back at the clubhouse with Baby Lam, grandma and I.

Here's Katie in her award winning costume (along with spaghetti stains on her chin). It's not a very good pic, but it's the best one of her whole costume.

Here she is getting her prize.

Baby Lam, a.k.a. "Baby Kitty" hanging out on the patio at the clubhouse.
WM and Patrick getting off the haunted hayride. Notice he's changed costumes from earlier in the day--now we're Batman.
Event #4: Halloween party at my office--this was a hoot. It could've been called "Kids Gone Wild." The kiddos decorated pumpkins, played games, ate snacks, etc., etc. The best part was trying to get a group photo. I can't do it with three kids, what ever possessed us to think we could do it with 8 kids ranging from age 4 months to 6 years?

Don't they look like a happy bunch of kids??

Event #5: Halloween night--the big event. I actually didn't get any photos from the big night. Patrick, Katie and I went to my sister's and trick-or-treated with my niece and nephew. It's something we've always done. They are in 2nd and 4th grade and are probably getting tired of their "little cousins" tagging along, but they were good sports and my kiddos had a great time. They were worn out by the end of the evening. And when we got home, WM had Baby Lam asleep in her bed--after they had handed out all of our candy.

Here they are the morning after...as if they hadn't had enough sugar over the previous week and a half, we went and got donuts the morning after Halloween at this super cute donut shop that has fun holiday donuts. Katie chose a candy corn shaped donut...Patrick opted for a baseball and as you can see in the photo, Baby Lam didn't really care, she just wanted to know who ate all her donut holes (it was her, by the way)!

In addition to these 5 activities we also had Kindergarten and pre-school parties. So, all in all, we had a great Halloween season this year, have more candy than Target and Walmart and our costumes got LOTS of mileage. I would say it was a success. I'm actually a little relieved it's over, now I'm prepping myself for the upcoming doozy of a holiday--Christmas. I think we have enough candy to last us the rest of the year.


Boo!