Halloween 2010

This year was crazy.  FIRST of all... I did a photoshoot for my AWESOME friend Tess and her family- in exchange she HANDmade halloween outfits for MY whole family.  I have had the material to do this myself for 3 years now, and never could muster up the courage to do it... Tess- you are an incredible seamstress.  I admire you!!!!!!!!!!!  Here's the pics:

Abigail's was the only one she didn't make... we bought that a few years ago when Addie was 2.

Since my Grandpa's funeral was on the Saturday before Halloween, we did not get to go to our church's "Trunk-or-Treat" night, which made it a little bit difficult to involve our kids in the holiday at all...  (whenever Halloween falls on a Sunday, our church holds a party on the Saturday before so that all the kids can still get candy- only they go from car-to-car in the church parking lot.  Everyone decorates their trunk all spooky, and everyone gets really in to it. )

Part of our beliefs in our family includes "Keeping the Sabbath Day holy"... To us, this means we try to make Sunday's a day of rest.  This year was quite a dilemma for us, as Halloween fell on a Sunday.  (We will NOT bring up the dilemma of Superbowl Sunday... THAT is for another post!)

Anyway, it was a big decision for us as a family, and it was hard to make.  But in the end, we were really pleased with the results, and for now, our kids were completely complacent :)

On Monday, we (Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Ashley) helped to make little cards and put them in a bag of candies for each of our 20-or-so neighbors.  On the card, it explained that our kids missed Halloween, and that we would be coming around that night to trick-or-treat, and if they wanted to help us out, then to please give the kids the candy we left in the bag.  If they didn't want to participate, they could just leave the baggie on the porch and we would pick it up when we came by.

It was GREAT.  Almost everyone did it, and although we got a few strange looks, it was really fun.  And even the houses that didn't participate left the kids a baggie of candy ;)  The kids never realized that all the baggies looked the same- heh heh.  We might as well get away with it while we can!

Taylor's first Halloween!  You can see how excited she is.

You may ask yourself, "where did all the coordinating monster outfits go??? and why does abigail's monster costume include facepaint and blood???"  The answer is that Addie decided that being a monster "is not fun because then I have to chase everyone."  All the other girls at her kindergarten Halloween parade wore princess stuff... she did not like to be the scary monster!  So she opted to be a witch instead- "then I get to wear a dress!"  Abigail's fangs and bloody mouth were because she really wanted to be a vampire... so she was for about 20 minutes before we left to trick-or-treat.  She changed her mind (not from all the bribing I was trying to do with her and Adds about wearing all monster costumes) because the black vampire cape was "too long" and she couldn't walk very well.  All that planning!!!!!!!!  I'm still hoping for a family of monsters to happen next year.........

Aunt Ashley and Uncle Jeremy went trick-or-treating too :)

Eating the spoils!!!

The Giants WON the World Series... so of course we waited to go trick-or-treating until AFTER the game.

What a memorable year we've had!  It's scary to think that Christmas and Thanksgiving are just around the corner.  The shops are already playing Christmas music!