Happy Halloween

Things I want to remember about Halloween this year...

• I helped with James’ class party. Isabelle got to come along too. Isabelle adores being with the big kids. Though she was livid at one point because there weren’t enough juice boxes for her. Being a newbie at the whole elementary parent thing, I eagerly signed up to help with both kids' parties. (Isabelle’s party was a different day). A break is earned next year. Isabelle’s party was especially exhausting since I was in charge of helping 3-year-olds make Oreo spiders. What a mess. I did enjoy seeing my kids in their school environments though.
• The kids have so many costumes and dress-ups. They could not decide what they wanted to wear. Throughout Halloween day, Isabelle wore at least 4 costumes 2 of which were princesses. For her preschool party, she was Elsa. On Halloween night, Isabelle ended up being Wonder Woman and James was an astronaut.

• I took the kids to Crave cookies because they were giving out a free cookie to all school-aged children dressed in costume. Obviously, there was a large mom tax. 
• The kids have wanted to go to the pumpkin patch near our house. It has a slide. I thought Halloween might be our last chance, so we went. It turns out pumpkin patches are semi-deserted on Halloween. We had the slide to ourselves. Izzy was afraid to go down the slide initially, but I was proud of her for doing it again and again.
• I decided that we clearly didn’t have enough sugar and made a new recipe: pumpkin spice cinnamon rolls with maple glaze. They were superb. I will make these again, but probably not on a sugar-packed day.
• Jessica, Chris, and George joined us! We had pizza which is a Halloween must/tradition. George made the cutest George Washington and came trick or treating with us for a few minutes before his bedtime.

• We met up with the Bradshaws and Boones while trick or treating. Valerie is a costume designer and seamstress. Their Spider-Man-themed costumes were next level.
• Our neighborhood is an amazing place to trick or treat. People go all out. Our bishop passes out homemade doughnuts! Someone else provides hot dogs. The buttery popcorn was a highlight; apparently, those neighbors passed out a record high of 400 bags. Cotton candy aka “witches brew” is fun too. We nearly forgot about the homemade root beer around the corner. It was worth the extra steps. 
• Our neighborhood had extra excitement this year. A street was blocked off and many fire trucks, emergency vehicles, and responders were around. There was a large chemical spill. We’re still confused why a neighbor had mercury in their garage, but we’re grateful everyone is ok. There was a news helicopter looming overhead and a full-on news report.  

• We were out trick or treating for over 2 hours.
• Andrew and I typically watch a scary movie after the kids are in bed. We watched “Hocus Pocus” but I don’t think it’s categorized as frightening. Neither of us had seen it before and we didn’t end up finishing or loving it.
• We couldn’t have asked for better weather. I’m so glad the snow waited until later on in the week.
• Cheers to celebrating more holidays with my perky children. I'm here for every minute of it. 

Waiting to go trick or treating was pure torture. The kids' excitement was through the roof.