I'm tired and not at all in the mood for blogging, but I've got to get Halloween out of the way before a mountain of pictures start piling up all waiting to be immortalized on the Internet.
We kind of waited until the last minute to carve pumpkins this year, but the kids didn't seem to mind as long as it got done.
Laila tried her best to get in on the action.
Every year since we've been in Michigan we buy tickets to the Zoo Boo. It's always so cold and I don't really look forward to it, but this year we went a little earlier in the evening and it was surprisingly pleasant. The kids look forward to it every year, not only because of the extra candy they get, but because it gives them another chance to wear their costumes.
Samm was a pink leopard this year. She wanted to be a cat, but the cat costumes in the kids section were kind of dumb so we looked in the adult section. The full pink leopard costume involved a leotard and fish net stockings, however we opted for just the ears, collar, and tail, and Samm was thrilled!
James wanted to be a ninja again. Too bad his costume from last year didn't fit still!
Macy originally wanted to be a ballerina witch, but Josh talked her into being just a witch when we found this costume on sale. I personally think the pink cowgirl boots make the whole costume!
And Laila HAD to be a lady bug because she is our Laila bug...get it! That's what Macy told every single person she talked to, including but not limited to, friends, family, checkers at the grocery store, pediatrician, random man at the grocery store, and fabric cutter at Jo Ann's.
Laila was not too thrilled about being a lady bug for the Zoo Boo!
Costumes always seem to change a little for us by Halloween night. Macy ended up being a glow in the dark witch, although it never got dark enough because of porch lights for her face to actually glow. And, because of some boy in James' classroom who told him his ninja costume was lame, he ended up being a zombie vampire ninja. Actually, what happened was when it came time to trick or treat James was in tears because his costume was not scary (ie, lame) and he wanted to go as just a kid. Now, what I wanted to do was yell at him that we paid money for his costume and I didn't care one bit if he thought it was lame, he was going to wear it! I didn't though. I actually remembered that we had a vampire makeup kit in out Halloween bucket that I'm pretty sure we bought on clearance after Samm's first Halloween, and we did a little modifying. He loved it so much that he has been wearing the teeth for the last 3 days and even asked to put more of the blood on his face today. And Laila actually warmed up to the costume!
Towards the end of the night Samm pooped out so I took her and Laila back home while Josh kept going with the other two. When they showed up just twenty minutes later, Macy's treat bag was busting at the seems. Some man said he was done for the night and just emptied the rest of his bowl into her and James' bags. I realized as Josh was telling me this that right before we split up, he emptied Macy's bag into the stroller because it was getting too heavy and James who had opted for just a grocery sack sent his home with me and started using a new one. The guys must have thought they just started and weren't gong to get much candy since it was getting late. Josh weighed Macy's bag as soon as they got home and it was 8 pounds!
Between the 8 pounds of trick or treating candy, the trunk or treat candy from church, and the zoo boo candy, I think we could distribute candy to a small country! I know everyone does candy differently, but our mom always just let us have out treat bags to eat until it was gone since we earned it, so that is what we do. All three of the older kids have about 10 years worth of candy sitting in a special spot in their rooms. The funny thing is that they usually ask first if they can have some even though I've never told them they have to.
Laila didn't get a treat bag to fill this year, but after watching the kids go down the first street she started screaming until I got her out of the stroller and then she headed straight for the nearest porch with her hand held out. It was so cute I had to let her walk up and get a few treats of her own.
