Halloween 2015

Countdown for Halloween started in the middle of the summer and really got going after Phineas' birthday. And once we had celebrated Thanksgiving, it was full force decorating and anticipating. Having Halloween on a Saturday was fun as it gave us the morning to have some pumpkin pie pancakes and finally get our pumpkin carved. We each drew pictures of our idea for the pumpkin carving and then we voted on which one to carve. I drew something that deviated from our usual pumpkin face and it was the unanimous choice. It was fun to try something new. And since the carving parts were a lot simpler than ones we have done in the past, the kids were able to help out a lot more.  

While Jason finished the last bit of the pumpkin (the parts that needed to be scraped rather than carved), I had the kids put on their costumes and get some individual pictures of them. They were pretty excited to get their costumes early.

Milayla, originally planned on being a squirrel. She saw the squirrel costume in our costume box and she was instantly enamoured. In the weeks that followed, she thought of being a princess but couldn't decide which she wanted to be more. So then she had a major idea that she would be a Princess Squirrel. And she was the best, most creative, smart, beautiful, brilliant smiled, sparkly eyed Princess of the Squirrels there ever was or ever will be :). I love her. And I love her creativity. We took some pictures as just a princess first to see the dress (a dress that Grandma Wendy and Grandpa Bob sent out) and then a picture with the squirrel costume which is on over the dress. I just cannot get over how much her face shines. This girl has a heart of gold and she just glows from the inside.

Atticus had some trouble deciding what he wanted to be. For a while he wanted to be a Narnian knight but we couldn't find a costume that was what he was hoping for. So when I was pulling out the costume box to see what costumes we had that would fit Phineas, Atticus thought he would try on his pilot costume and run around in it. He was pretty ecstatic to learn that it still fit (it was big on him last year) and he devoted himself to another year as a pilot because, in his words, "that means I can pilot the Trick-or-Treat route about the best places to head to!". This boy is growing up way too fast. And he is starting to get the art of punch lines which is fun. The humour bit also means he likes to give me some faces when I'm taking pictures and it's fun to see his personality come through. I feel like he is starting to look more and more mature (but still so little still!) in photos and I can see glimpses of big kid Atticus starting to peek through. I love him so much and his innate love for being a big brother. He has a big heart. It is an amazing process to be part of this growing process with him because I sure do feel myself, as a mother and an individual, growing right along with these wonderful little ones.

After pictures with Atticus and Milayla, Jason had finished our pumpkin and it was time to catch a glimpse of it all lit up. So we darkened things up and checked it out. We were pretty impressed with our work! It was fun that we all got to work on it fairly equally.

And then we got our ever-in-motion Phineas Pumpkin ready for his photos.

Sitting still for photos when there is other exciting stuff going on is just not in a toddlers frame of mind - especially Phineas. Milayla was kind enough to give him her princess wand to help for the first few seconds and then Jason took to bouncing him and we just focused on capturing that big, happy, infectious smile of his. I wish that I had done some video as well to capture that laugh. Actually, I wish I was doing more video all around because there is so much that cannot be captured in pictures that I would love to have in record. Like little toddler voices, laughter, sounds, itty-bitty foot steps, interactions and soo much more.

For Halloween photos - I was just happy to capture Phineas' brilliant smile. He was so young last Halloween that there isn't any reference point for him so he was pretty over-the-moon about the whole thing. And in true Phineas style, when he is super excited, he sweeps the floor and helps clean up. Actually, he will take any opportunity he can to sweep or "organize" something. He is the greatest little helper and is so excited to pick up the broom, or a clean cloth, or toys and pitch in. It is absolutely adorable and heart melting. I know he gets a lot of that from watching his big siblings get excited to be helpers and that just makes me heart swell. They are good kids. They have their moments but they are undoubtedly great kids.

I also made sure to grab some pictures of the decorations that the kids helped with. We had our usual bats that we hung up, Milayla coloured a picture that she lovingly placed on the wall (she is so in love with art these days and it's great), Atticus and Milayla painted some Halloween themed stain-glass window decals, Milayla picked out where our Halloween banner would go, and then her and Atticus cut out some mouse silhouettes for our stairs. The mice on the stairs were a big hit with the kids this year, they turned out really well. We also had the usual monster coming out of the toilet and way back, nearer Thanksgiving, we put caution tape, spider web, spiders and our trick or treating sign out. We were adequately decked out.

I had to head out for part of the day for a rehearsal at the Stake Centre for the upcoming Temple Cultural Celebration (I really need to write more on that!) so the kids and Jason came along to keep me company on the drive and to run some errands and play while I was at rehearsal. They don't always come along because it doesn't always work out with the things that we have going on, but I was super grateful that they had come along this day. I love their company and conversation. It's pretty often that the kids, Jason and I remark about how time in the car together was one of our favourite parts of the day. We joke, laugh and sing - a lot. We also use it as a learning opportunity which is great. I also loved that while the kids were sitting on the stairs they learned the fun names of the lollipop flavours then turned it into a pretend game of them making friends with each other, shaking hands and giving hugs.

When we got home it was a bit of a whirlwind. The kids had a quick dinner (we had crockpot chilli waiting for us :) ). And as we were about to get our costumes on, the Carpenters (Anick, Patrick and their little daughter Amelia along with Amelia's grandparents) arrived to go trick or treating with perfect timing.

We love our neighbourhood. And especially love our neighbours. We really lucked out with some awesome neighbours (actually, we usually tend to get some really great neighbours which has been an awesome blessing throughout our moves). They have all been so welcoming, kind and helpful. The kids absolutely adored getting to trick or treat to each of their homes and show off their costumes.

We did a large city block and the kids were tuckered out. We took them past the very popular haunted yard that raises money for the Starlight Foundation every year. It is really neat. They even had some singing pumpkins that were pretty popular. When we tried to take the kids to it a couple nights before Halloween (it runs each night, the entire week before Halloween) they wouldn't go any closer than a house away. On Halloween, Milayla opted to stay across the street with me and check it out from there and Atticus toured around the lot with Jason. They both were quite content with how the observed it. And one of the candy ladies came across the street to make sure that Milayla (and some other children who were a little leery to cross the street) got some candy. It provided a great opportunity to take about things that are real vs. pretend and how plenty of the things we saw were made to look pretty real. Speaking of which, we were surprised to see some pretty young kids in some fairly frightening costumes. Maybe it's always been that way and I am just more aware as a parent than I was before.

When we got home, the adults ate some dinner and I kept an eye on Atticus while he volunteered to give the candy out at the door. He soaks that right up. By the end of it he was even saying "happy halloween" to the kids. And he was pretty excited to see all the excitement of the kids when they realized that they got some play dough. And it was really nice to catch up with the Carpenters whom we hadn't seen in a while.

Atticus opted for a visit from the Switch Witch a few days afterward, Milayla kept her candy, and Phineas (since he is too little for a the few pieces of candy that he collected) defaulted to a visit from the Switch Witch as well.

It was a fun Halloween, and I sure loved getting to take my cute little Pumpkin, Princess Squirrel (clad in her pink mittens) and Pilot out trick or treating.