halloween activites

So Halloween night this year was a bit of a bust for our family. Aiden didn't want to wear his costume, he got scared as soon as we started trick of treating which put an end to it pretty quickly and Ayla was a little fussy that night. There were tears. And a fit. And mom's vision of how Halloween would go didn't quite work out. Good thing we had fun doing activities to prepare for Halloween ;)

First up was the Halloween house, I did the frosting and Aiden added the candy. He had so much fun, I think he would gladly decorate a Halloween house every night - he keeps asking to!

He was so proud of the finished house. He even sat still and let me take a picture of him next to it.

Next up was pumpkin carving/painting with Lisa and the twins. Lisa and I carved, and the kids painted their little pumpkins. Aiden painted a little bit of his pumpkin and then decided that exploring Chris and Lisa's backyard was more fun. Addison and Ryan painted their pumpkins but enjoyed mixing all the paint colors together a little more. I think by the end every paint color was a sort of army green.

Ayla's little mini pumpkin got glittered pink this year and the big pumpkins got a traditional (easy)
face carved on them. The elaborately carved pumpkins will have to wait until the kids are older ;)

The night before Halloween Aiden and I decorated cookies for his teachers (and a few for us). Once again, I did the frosting and he did the candy decorations - he tried frosting but it was a little too hard for him still. He also helped me make the frosting and especially enjoyed licking the beater ;)

And last but not least, we made "stained glass" jack o lanterns to hang on the sliding glass door. I shaved orange and yellow crayon and cut shapes for faces. He sprinkled the crayon onto wax paper and used the shapes to make faces. When he was done I put another sheet of wax paper on top, ironed them together and cut them into a pumpkin shape. He glued on green stems and we hung them up. He shows them to me several times a day "look at all those pumpkins Momma!"

Halloween day is when the trouble began. Aiden was supposed to be a pirate. He had a costume and hat and sword, but when I went to put it on him for school, it was "all done pirate", "bye bye pirate", "see ya later pirate" - he was not a happy camper. So, with 5 minutes to spare before we had to leave for school I threw together his Giants baseball player costume, which he was just fine with!

We attempted to get the pirate costume on again for trick or treating (I even tweaked it and sewed!) but, no luck. Miss Ayla went as a baby. In a pumpkin onsie. Because she was swimming in all the 0-3 mo. sized baby costumes. Oh well. Next year!

Now, for a kid that only went to 1 house to trick or treat, he sure ended up with a lot of candy. Between school and leftovers from Lisa, we had plenty.

And somewhere along the way I found a bag of costumes that were Sophie's (you know, before the children came into the picture I dressed up the dog) and I decided it would be a good idea if she modeled them all. Frog dog, hot dog, bat dog, and witch dog. Aiden got a kick out of it. Sophie...well, not so much.

Years from now, when we talk about Ayla's first Halloween, I will smile and show the kids the following  pictures....

See how we are all smiling? It was great! There were no tears. Or screaming. Or refusal to wear a costume. Heck, there were even no dirty diapers or spit up. And I weighed 30 pounds less. It was perfect!

Ha.

Just kidding. I will tell them the truth, because I think that some of life's experiences (yes, even holidays) are supposed to be just like this. Completely imperfect, but experiences just the same :)