Halloween 2014

Halloween 2014 is in the books! This was a fun year having the chance to celebrate Halloween with my Nebraska family. I can't remember the last time I did (likely when I still lived at home) and now that my sister and I have kids of our own, we did some extra things to make the day special.

My sister, Ashley, arrived at my mom and dad's house early Halloween morning with two big pumpkins to carve. This was perfect because Tory and I had yet to carve pumpkins this year. Since we planned to be gone from our own house over Halloween, I figured the un-carved pumpkins on my front porch would last me through November. Anyway, I was happy to have the chance to carve pumpkins after all, and Ashley and I set to work making jack-o-lanterns big and small for the kids. A side note: my mom probably would have had a heart attack if she saw the giant messes we made in her house this week. All was cleaned up by the time she came home for lunch everyday, so no harm done.

Brooke (age 7) was old enough to help carve pumpkins, so Ashley cut the pumpkin tops off and together they dug out the guts. I held the official role as "photographer" so I bowed out of this gooey part. Oh, darn. 

Hey, look! Baby's first time carving pumpkins!

After most of the seeds had been collected in a bowl, I stepped in to carve the pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns. The kids were given some small pumpkins at the Night of the Great Pumpkin event Thursday night, and surprisingly they proved to be the easiest ones to carve. Tory requested her pumpkin be "boo-y" (from her favorite Halloween book, Pippa the Pumpkin Fairy) so I gave hers my best "boo-y" face. She seemed to approve.

#momlife. Carving pumpkins with one hand while holding the baby with the other.

Getting four kids to look and smile at the camera at once = impossible. A second after I snapped this photo, Brooke yelled, "Happy Halloween!" behind Aden and scared the pants off him. He startled and screamed, and picture-time was officially over.

After lunch and naps, we dressed the kids in Halloween costumes and visited my Aunt Cheri and Uncle Norman's house. They invited us all over for pizza and an evening of trick-or-treating. I'd say they live in one of the nicer neighborhoods in town and it definitely showed. There were cars and kids from all over lining their street for trick-or-treating. My Uncle Norm dressed up as SuperMan and handed out king-size candy bars at their house. The next door neighbor handed out toys with each piece of candy. Big-timers!

At the last minute, Ashley and I decided to dress up to take the kids trick-or-treating. I borrowed old cat ears and a tail from Ashley's house (one of Brookie's old costumes) and Ashley and her husband, Jason, dressed up as an old couple. Tory was so excited to see my costume; she couldn't stop staring at the whiskers drawn on my face.  

After pizza and salad, we took the kids trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. Brooke and Tory sprinted from house-to-house while poor Neeley struggled to keep up on her short little two-year-old legs. At one point Ashley asked Neeley, "Do you want me to carry you?" and Neeley responded out of breath, "No, Mama! Trick-or-treat!"

I think Tory would've trick-or-treated all night if I'd let her but after we'd been to about 10 houses, I told her Halloween was over. It was getting cold and dark outside, and she was still battling a cough and runny nose. Without much resistance to stopping Tory asked, "Can I have some butter toast?" All that candy she'd just collected and Tory never asked (and still hasn't asked) to eat a single piece.

Ashley said she hopes we'll be able to come back to Nebraska every year and celebrate with them. I can't guarantee it, but being surrounded by family definitely made this holiday a fun one.