A Haunting Halloween

I am usually such a scrooge about Halloween. I really just don't see the point and hate the hassle of coming up with costumes that they wear for a few hours just to collect obnoxious amounts of sugar. I started this Halloween off as a scrooge but have to admt that we had a lot of fun! Hopefully I will not be quite such a scrooge in the future. Yes, I will probably still grumble about finding costumes but will hopefully quickly remind myself that it will all be worth it when we have lots of fun. The kids were very excited about Halloween and did a good job of finding things we already had or getting pretty creative. It was so nice that Halloween was on Saturday so I actually had Andy's help getting kids ready and going trunk or treating. Usually we end up meeting him at trunk or treating or he gets home just as we are getting in the car. Here's the crew all ready to head out for trunk or treating. My cousin's little girl Brooklynn came over to get her costume and have me help her get ready. She was a gorgeous princess!

Aaron wanted to be a scarecrow but not a normal looking one. He wanted to be a scarey pumpkin head one. Thanks to a sweet mask from Walmart, Dad's flannel shirt, Aunt Sara's bibs, and a straw hat from Grammy, he was all decked out and a happy camper!

Aidan couldn't decide what to be this year. I pulled out the costume box and he was thrilled to find a ninja costume! It fit him perfect and he was one tough ninja!

Meg really wanted to be Scooby-doo this year, but we couldn't find a costume anywhere. Well, I guess that is not totally true. We could find them to order online, but they were all pretty expensive and probably wouldn't get here in time. When the costume box came out, she was excited to find the dragon costume that she had been waiting to grow into. It was cozy warm and fit great! (She had a few problems with the zipper but it all worked out just fine.)

My sweet little Dora! (or as one of my friend's husband's called her - an aborigany. The wig was pretty crazy!) Anyone that knows Kenna knows this was very fitting for her. She absolutely loves Dora. Thanks to Aunt Christy we were able to make Kenna happy this year. She didn't wear the wig a lot cause it kept falling off, but she was a very cute blonde haired Dora!

My sweet little bunny Ashlee! This was my costume as a little girl and all of my children have worn it for their first Halloween. It has had the sleeves and pants tacked up or let out a few times due to very different heights of my children but they have all been the most adorable bunnies! Ashlee loved wearing her costume! Most of my kids have tolerated it and usually ended up taking the ears off cause they pulled on them so much, but Ashlee was the exception! She was a total ham! She loved all the attention she got! She was all smiles this night!

I love how you can see her two bottom teeth in this picture!

Yes, you are seeing things right! I actually dressed up. My friend Cammy convinced me to dress up this year and Andy kind of went along with it. She supplied the costumes and I did my part of the dead pirate (minus the costume makeup). Andy wasn't game for the matching outfit so he dressed as a hunter instead (I know - oh so original). I think he just wanted to practice for the upcoming hunting season. I have to admit it was kind of fun to dressup, and I may consider doing it again in the future. MAYBE!!

My adorable friend Cammy that convinced me to dress up.

On Friday before Halloween, we enjoyed school Halloween parties. Unfortunately I couldn't find my camera in the rush out the door for Meg's Halloween party, so I will have to bum pictures off my friends. But we had fun going to The Heartland for a parade and songs (minor little glitch in that she left her top at home and I had to hurry back and get it and then when they started singing her zipper wouldn't work so she was in tears most of the time, but at least she looked cute!) We then went to the church for a fun carnival and goodies! It was a fun morning. We had a few hours to go home and recoop before Aidan and Aaron's parties in the afternoon. I was in charge of Aidan's party, so we spent our time in his classroom but I did slip over to Aaron's classroom to see him and he came over to Aidan's to try and convince one of his sisters to go to his party. Kenna went for a few minutes but decided to come back to be with me. It was fun to go to the all school parade and then enjoy goodies in Aidan's classroom.

The boys love it when the girls come to their school. They love having them sit with them. It is so nice that their school is so family friendly! The girls love to be in the classrooms with the boys. It is crazy that Meg will be there next year too.

Halloween just wouldn't be Halloween without fun Halloween hairdos! The girls were excited for their spiderweb dos! On Friday, this was Meg's do for school parties. It looks hard but is actually really easy and pretty quick. I am sure we will be using this one again for just an everyday do too!

On Halloween, I wanted to try my hand at making up my own fun dos! These are what I came up with. Meg's took quite awhile cause of all the little rubberbands, but it turned out so cute! This is definitely not an everyday do but it is fun for Halloween!

Kind of a devilish little look!

I did Kenna's hair while the older kids were doing swimming lessons. It didn't turn out quite how I had picture it in my head, but it was still fun and she was excited to have a spiderweb do too!

The witch look! So appropriate for Halloween!