44/52: A Weekly Photo Series: The Night of the Great Pumpkin

Tory, Aden and I are visiting my parents in Nebraska this weekend while Andi is working in California. We flew into town yesterday afternoon after a long day at the airport. Traveling solo with the kids doesn't usually get me frazzled, but yesterday did. We had one issue after another; a delayed flight, stroller issues, seat re-assignments. Tory and Aden behaved wonderfully once we were in flight (probably because Aden had so much extra time in the airport to run off some energy!) and most importantly, we finally made it to Nebraska.

Shortly after we arrived to my parent's house, my sister Ashley and I dressed our kids in their Halloween costumes with plans to go downtown to the annual Night of the Great Pumpkin event. But, first, a front yard photo shoot just because...

Elmo Aden and Butterfly Neeley

Side-story about this Halloween costume: I thought Aden would love being Elmo because he's fairly obsessed with him right now. I borrowed this full-body costume from my friend Lindsey (her daughter was Elmo when she was two) and tried it on Aden for the first time the night before we left for Nebraska. The minute he saw the Elmo costume, he cried "No please, no please!" and demanded I take it off him. Uh-oh! I threw a superhero cape in my suitcase as a last resort and hoped Aden would feel differently about Elmo come Halloween night.

Fortunately, Aden was just fine being Elmo for the Night of the Great Pumpkin event last night. And, oh my gosh did he look cute!
   

Tory is dressing up as Princess Aurora (from Sleeping Beauty) this year. My sister Ashley curled her hair and Tory felt so special.

All the grandkids together: Cheerleader Brooke (age 8), Elmo Aden (age 1), Princess Tory (age 4) and Butterfly Neeley (age 3)

The Night of the Great Pumpkin event was super fun! My sister and I took the kids to this holiday celebration last year, too. Downtown businesses handed out candy to trick-or-treaters, the local cosmetology school hosted a face painting table and the Main Street association gave away free pie pumpkins to every child. I love safe, non-spooky Halloween events like this for kids. We had a great time.

Aden was so focused on collecting as many real pumpkins as he could and stuffing them into his plastic pumpkin. It was so cute! The minute I'd take one out (because the pumpkin limit was one per child), he'd pick up another one and concentrate on putting another one in his bucket.

Tory was excited to have her face painted again, as it was the first thing she remembered about going to the event last year. She chose a pink heart (surprised?) to match her pink princess dress, pink shoes and pink Halloween bucket. 

Brooke, Tory and Neeley decorated their free pumpkins with stickers and markers. Brooke wrote "I Love You" on her pumpkin and upon sight I exclaimed, "Did you write that by yourself?!" She looked at me like I was nuts. I guess I forget she's eight years old (and not four like Tory). Ha!

More trick-or-treating ...

The kids collected about 20 pieces of candy each and were thrilled. "We got a MILLION HUNDRED pieces of candy!" Tory exclaimed. Glad they all had such a great time.

Afterwards, we went back to my parents for Shepard's Pie and apple salad. So happy to be home celebrating Halloween with my family this weekend.