Spooky Oooky Halloween

Halloween is here again! Its been a long week for us filled with lots of Fall Festivals and Halloween fun (and its only Wednesday - we've still got half a week to go! :).










We had a little pre-Halloween saga when it came to choosing what the kids wanted to be this year, the moral of the story is....never buy a Halloween costume too early! Marshall started out the month wanting to be the hero from the Sleeping Beauty story (this is a favorite bedtime book - there is a big, evil dragon name Maleficient that is slayed at the end of the story by the brave hero, Prince Phillip) so I got on ebay and found a costume complete with dragon-slaying sword and shield. I also found a similar costume for Jack (since his main motto these days is, "Me too!").









Then as Halloween week got closer and the kids at school started talking about what they were going to be, Marshall decided he really, really wanted to be Batman. Well, after about a week of him answering Batman after anyone asked what he was going to be for Halloween, I melted and got out the Batman masks and costumes I had bought at a children's resale to give him and Jack at Christmas. With a little help from Granny, we made a new cape to go with it and our little Batman has never been happier. :)




Once we got through the costume saga, we started Halloweening on Saturday with a Birthday/Halloween party for Marshall's friend, Carson. The kids were asked to wear their costumes and Carson's house was decorated with spooky oooky Halloween decorations (Marshall picked up the phrase "spooky ooky" from the Disney channel and uses it all the time lately to describe anything Halloween-related :). Carson had a giant bounce house for the kiddos to play in and his parents even did a hay ride around the neighborhood (minus the actual hay - I guess it was more a trailer ride than a hay ride but the kids had fun never-the-less ;).






They also had a costume contest in which Marshall won the prize for "Best Boy Costume" and very appropriately, the prize bucket included a plastic bat toy which Marshall absolutely loved (he literally played with it until it fell apart! :). It was a great party!






Then on Tuesday night we went trick-or-treating with some friends that live in the best trick-or-treating neighborhood I have ever seen! Last year we went with them on Halloween night and it was pure chaos! Everyone in our small town trick-or-treats there - there were so many kids. The city even stations cops all over the place to direct traffic and generally keep things safe. The one downside last year was that since there were so many kids everywhere, homeowners just sat on their front porches and handed candy out of big buckets so none of the kids got to ring the doorbells and wait to yell "Trick-or-Treat!".

So this year we went on Tuesday night which is only for kids who live in the neighborhood (or, in our case, those kids trick-or-treating with someone who lives in the neighborhood). It was definitely much calmer this way and Marshall and Michael had a great time (not sure about Jack and Lauren - they were good sports, no complaints at all but "fun" as a descripter might be stretching it a little.... ;)






Wednesday night we went to the Fall Festival at the church. We played lots of games, won lots of prizes, rode on another hay ride and ate waaaay too much popcorn and cotton candy.








And to think, this is only the halfway point of our Halloween week! :)