Trick or Treat!

Halloween is a holiday that I really don't care for. But the kids love it, so I  let them dress up and trick or treat, watch Halloween movies, and do crafts. Their costumes are usually a last minute thing that I find at  Goodwill or some other second hand store. I'm all about cheap! They get whatever I can find. But this year they  each had some money to spend and they wanted new costumes. We went to Wal-Mart  at the end of September when all the Halloween stuff came out and found some really fun outfits for them to wear. Both of the girls love the Monster High character and lucky for us they had plenty to choose from. Elizabeth chose to be Clawdine Wolf and Jocleyn chose to be Abby Abominable.  Ethen wanted to be everything he saw. We finally narrowed it down to 3: Buzz Light year, Woody, or Scooby Doo. He ended up with Woody. He loves his costume and wanted to wear it all the time. I let him a few times  too many and ended up having to sew  up a several holes in the seems here and there and  fix a  run in the back too. We weren't sure his costume would last till Halloween. He was wearing it out. Even the girls wore theirs a few times  as dress up. So I guess they were worth the cost since they are getting to wear them more than just on Halloween.

Our first trick or treating was 2 weeks before Halloween at our ward  Trunk or Treat.party. We went to a state park for the activity. I really like the idea of doing it during the day. The kids could eat, play, and trick or treat and not freeze  or worry about being out in the dark. It was a great activity and they got lots of candy.

Halloween was scheduled on Thursday the 30th from 6-7:30 pm  We joined a family from our ward, the Sessions, and went to a neighborhood that was packed with lots of kids and families. We all had a great time. And the hour and half was just long enough to go around a few blocks before it got dark and too cold. This year the weather was pretty good and the temperatures in the high 50's.  We couldn't have asked for better conditions. This neighborhood was very generous and gave lots of good candy. And several non candy like chips, restaurant coupons, balloons, etc.

On Halloween night, the college in town was doing Halloween event for families. You had to donate food or clothing to get into the event and everything was free to do. It was held in their gym. The gym floor held several bounce houses and lots of carnival like games.  The upper level was lined with dozens of business pouring out candy, coupons, and freebie items to entice  new customers to their business.   We spent about an hour down on the floor before heading up to the  trick or treating.  The kids had a lot of fun and we will for sure attend the event again next year.  

With all the candy from the three nights of trick or treating, we were able to refill our 40 lbs bucket  of food storage candy. The kids haven't had much of it and they will only get  2 or 3 pieces a week. Now I just have to keep myself from dipping into it while they are at school.

Clawdine Wolf

Abby Abominable 

Woody