i was a little apprehensive going into halloween this year- i feel like last year kind of took the cake in terms of awesomeness (between the never-ending parties, multiple costumes, and mike's whole family trick-or-treating in our neighborhood on the most perfect night)- it was just a tough one to top. we live in a kid-free complex, and mike and i thought we would save time and money on costumes, plus the kids were already set on the usual standard-costume-fare, so we didn't bother. we planned on attending the trunk-or-treat at church, then decided to play the rest of the night by ear.
but first! red lipstick for elsa (a frozen fever elsa, mind you. thanks to china and amazon for making this possible- at least we had a bit of variety in the elsa attire!); batman for jude. his poor costume was barely hanging on by halloween day- he was in love from the moment he spotted it on the little rack at costco, and begged to wear it everyday. everywhere. so we usually let him:) "JUDE! BATMAN! BIG MUSCLES!"
she is the prettiest elsa though, isn't she? :)
freezing people is serious business. also, jude is "mean batman," even though we tried desperately to make him a nice batman, he wasn't having it.
then it was trunk-or-treat time! we had a little potluck at church, including a costume parade...
^^ superheros unite! plus a runaway superman baby...
the moment they've all been waiting for...
THE LEAVES HERE! seriously, the east coast takes the leaf game and kind of blows the roof off anywhere else. i've never seen anything like it! plus, it was like 68 degrees all day, which was amazingly beautiful.
our cute friends invited us to their daughter's preschool- jude and mazie are kind of dating or something (ask jude;)- it's not any preschool, it's like a magical awesome woodsy fairy preschool. they focus on the waldorf principle, namely, "truth, beauty, and goodness," and let me tell you- i've never seen anything like it! i literally felt like i was in a storybook. it was unreal. oh, and mazie chose an "underwater" theme for their costumes, so steph made them all sea creatures! mazie was a jellyfish- they were seriously the cutest bunch (i went back and forth between totally regretted not dressing up, and being grateful we didn't because we couldn't have competed in any way with their costumes:)
the night included songs and stories around the guitar, playing on the 50-year-old playground that has been made to be part of the trees, candlelit jack-o-lanterns, and then there was the trick-or-treating part... the kids collected gemstones, unicorn ornaments, stones from the creek, acorns, leaves, fairy dust, and gluten-free, nut-free, cookies. it totally made me take back the discussion we'd just had 30 minutes before about not eating homemade candy. this was the exception:)
on our way home we stopped to meet up with a few more friends to try and "real" trick-or-treat at a few houses in a nearby neighborhood. apparently those neighbors didn't get the memo that it was halloween, and there was more than 1 case of, "hi, can i help you?" when they came to the door. WHAT?! PEOPLE! turn off your lights, don't you know the rules of halloween night!? so we went back to one of their houses for cider and candy-eating, taking off when the kids all reached the coma-like-zone of staring into space.
by the time we got home, the kids buckets were SO HEAVY (i blame the rocks from the creek:) they poured them out promptly on the table, and squealed in delight looking through the loot...
then the kids went to bed, and mike and i ate all the good stuff. (because it may be our last year to do that without them noticing:)
we said over and over again how awesome things turned out- it was just right. oh, and last night the sweet couple across the hall brought over a halloween basket for the kids complete with a pumpkin, book, and treats. i'm totally impressed:)
good job, 2015. good job.
