Halloween 2015

This has been my most low key Halloween ever. A big reason for that is because Baby Bridget was born earlier this month, and we have been concerned and focused on her. Her precious life is such a powerful reminder of what is most important. 

Recently, I have also been practicing to tame the FOMO beast (Fear of Missing Out) and feeling so much peace in doing so. We carved our one pumpkin on Halloween night. I didn't decorate the house other than that. I wore a very low key costume (stay at home mom Dorothy Gale) to only one event, and John didn't wear a costume at all! That doesn't sound that big of a deal, but almost every year of our marriage we have done a coordinating couple costume or family costume theme and decked our house out in decorations. 

We had plenty of Halloween outings- parties at school and preschool and playgroups and church- so I really didn't need to do anything other than those to show my kids a good time. 

I had a crazy busy day on Thursday with a dance class party for George at the same time as Charlie's school parade, plus Charlie and George's class parties at the exact same time. Charlie was also Star Student that day AND had show and tell. Luckily, I had help making it all happen- John took the morning off of work and my friend Jessica picked up George from dance (her little boy was his guest to the dance class party) and kept him all morning, fed him lunch and then took him to preschool. 

I had a lot of fun helping in Charlie's class, making an apple juice and dry ice witch's brew. When I asked Charlie if I could wear a costume to help at his class party, he looked at me horrified and said, "No!" One of the other moms let me borrow her witch hat so I was more legit. 

On the night of Halloween, we skipped the neighborhood parties and potluck and our kids opted to stay home and pass out candy instead of trick or treating. We went to our next door neighbor and that is it! Normally, I would have felt defeated and sad, and in the past sometimes we've missed out on things for kind of sad reasons, so it isn't only my FOMO that has made me feel down. But this year we are having such a lovely October, everyone is doing so well! So to choose to stay home just because we felt like it was really quite wonderful. 

We had such a fun night together. We watched The Princess Bride for the first time ever and all day today Charlie has been quoting lines and laughing at parts of the movie with me. He's even said, "Mom, as you wish" a few times with a little smile and gleam in his eye because he knows in the film it means, "I love you." Heart melter. 

Bonnie the Monkey (aka "Bonkey")

George the pirate (recycled costume from last year!) and his friend Sam Plumb

Charlie the robber (admittedly, I did stay up very late working on that t shirt (hand sewing together two other shirts we had) and assembling that LEGO Mixel for him for show and tell. So that part wasn't very low stress, but he was overjoyed by both surprises in the morning so it was definitely worth it). 

Halloween 2013

 I wanted to be Lucille Ball for Halloween for a whole year. I bought a Lucy wig last year on clearance in preparation. Unfortunately, I never tried it on until Halloween Day and it was way too small. :( So I frantically did my best to fix my hair like hers and it turned out pretty well. It was a crazy day of rushing back and forth to Charlie's school then running over to John's work party then hitting a few houses for trick or treating and our neighbor's potluck dinner. We literally only stopped at five houses and had the kids in bed by 7- it felt so good.

Waahhh, Ricky!

John was a great sport to dress up like Ricky Ricardo all day at work. It is hard to guess that outfit without your Lucy by your side! He ended up modifying his work ID badge to say Ricky Ricardo, with a picture of Ricky on it with John's glasses added on top. Nice work. 

Ricky and Lucy, and two little dragons (one had already disrobed partially already)

Getting ready to trick or treat at Daddy's office. There were a few people there (who happened to be from Japan) who were dressed up like Mario, Luigi and Toad and Charlie was in heaven following them around!

My parents stopped by to see the kids and went trick or treating with us. It was so fun to see them, even though my kids were exhausted and half undressed by then. 

A few days before Halloween we had a pumpkin carving party with the Thorntons. The boys and I worked on the guts that afternoon in preparation. George didn't like it, and neither did Charlie. Charlie was clever enough to ask for a pair of gloves to wear! Then he was a great helper. 

Our neighbors have this scarecrow on a rod with pumpkin head that moves in the wind. It freaked both kids out, although by the end of October, Charlie had his courage up enough to run up to it and then run right back. 

What's in your mouth, Che?

Ah-ha!

Posing in his skeleton jammies from last year. He barely squeezed into them this year and he loved that they glow in the dark. :)

This is one doodle that can't be undid, home skillet

We test drove our costumes at Liz and Steve's Halloween party on Friday. It was so fun to catch up and see friends we hadn't for a while. It was especially funny to get sidelong glances at my ENORMOUS and FAKE belly. The guys, especially, were reluctant to assume anything, so I got a lot of sincere (albeit confused) congratulations. I spent a lot of the night explaining that I was, indeed, pregnant, but the big, squishy belly I was sporting wasn't real.

Here we are as Juno MacGuff and Paulie Bleeker (I will have to get a full length photo of John- those shorts are REALLY short and he was the one pinning 'em up!)





And here's the movie poster: