How We Spent Our Halloween in 2014

Now that our family's Halloween costumes were all designed, and now that all our pumpkins were purchased, it was time to get our Halloween "groove" on, by attending several parties & events (not counting the ones I've already blogged about. Good heavens, the end of October is so busy!)

 

I've already blogged about the girls' costumes, so no need to rehash that. Nathan decided to forgo dressing up this year (as he usually does, but no big deal). As for myself, I had two "quasi-costumes" this year, that I wore to different events. The first was my "nerd" costume, in which I threw on a little of everything genre-related that I had laying around.

The cape was from Salt Lake City Comic Con, which my mother had attended earlier this year. Thanks Mom!

I even made myself a "totally legit" Comic Con badge! I only wore the Iron Man mask on the top of my head, though; it's kind of hard to breathe in that thing.

We took our costumes on their "maiden voyage" on Friday the 24th, when we had multiple Halloween parties to attend. First, we all stopped by my friend Cindy's house; she had planned a "carnival-style" party for kids (although adults were also welcome, either in or out of costume!).

The party was lots of fun; it had lots of games, booths, & activities. One of the young women from our LDS ward even made balloon animals for everyone.

 

The kids all loved showing off their costumes, and admiring all their friends' costumes too.

Aurora with some of her buddies: Taylor (on left) and Ava (center)

In fact, there was a costume contest at the party as well...and Lorelai's Ninja Turtle costume won best costume in the girl's category! She got a little basket full of goodies and prizes, and she was very excited. I was happy for her, and also a teeny bit proud of my sweet-costume making skills.

Here's Lorelai with her friend Conner, who won best costume in the boy category. He came dressed as Baymax from Disney's latest animated movie Big Hero 6

I suspect Cindy being a fellow Ninja Turtles fan (she dressed as a turtle for Halloween herself!) helped Lorelai's chances, but who were we to complain about that?

Celeste was only able to stay at "Ms. Cindy's" party for a few minutes; after that, she zoomed off with her friend Cambry to their Girl Scout Halloween party across town.

I wasn't able to attend the party myself, but Celeste raved about it afterwards (she got a ton of food). Cambry's mother Marissa was kind enough to lend me this picture of the party. I thought it was kind of adorable that the "girliest" of my daughters was the only girl at that party dressed up as a "tough" character...she was a ninja surrounded by princesses! But they all looked very cute anyway.

After picking Celeste up from her party, we ran several errands around town, then went home and frantically scrubbed everyone's hair (too much hair dye this Halloween week, yech!).

The following Monday, we spent our family home evening night by driving around looking at spookily decorated Halloween houses. One house in particular, in a neighborhood north of us, had a full light & sound show set up; we watched for several minutes as the front-yard displays blinked and flashed in time with Danny Elfman music. It was great fun. Then, the following night, we decided to finally carve those pumpkins we'd spent the last couple of weeks picking up:

Not our most creative work, but not bad! I have come to the conclusion that I'm not a genius pumpkin-carver, but as long as they have a well-defined face and the kids are happy with the way it looks, I consider it a job well done.

From left to right: Celeste's, Lorelai's, and Aurora's jack o'lanterns

The following night (October 29th) was our LDS ward's annual Halloween get-together. For many years now, the activity has been mostly kid-centered, with small carnival games followed by a trunk or treat. This year, though, our ward finally changed things up a bit (thank goodness! Nathan and I have grown weary of the noisy carnival games year after year). Instead of the games, our ward had a chili cook-off dinner, so everyone would at least get some nutritious food inside them before filling up on candy. It made the activity a little more "all-inclusive."

And there was a flash mob set to Michael Jackson's "Thriller," so that was another delightful new addition. Our bishop even got up and strutted his stuff!

I spent much of that afternoon decorating our car's trunk (it was festooned with spiderwebs and glowing spider "egg sacs,")...and of course I forgot to take a picture of it. Oh well, it still looked cooler than it ever has before! There was actually a prize awarded this year for most creative trunk, but I never stood a chance...there are many families in the ward a lot more creative than I am. I was still pleased with my final product, though; I even took the "egg sacs" I'd made and hung them in our front yard afterwards, to add to our home's Halloween creepiness.

You can...kind of(?) see those egg sacs hanging from the roof. Kind of.

There were still more Halloween hijinks on Thursday; Aurora's preschool class held their Halloween party, and everyone came in costume! The kids all sang us a few songs and showed off their hand-made masks.

 They also built cute little "Halloween houses"; they were a spooky version of the graham-cracker "gingerbread houses" kids build at Christmas time.

Aurora loved her Halloween house so much, she just leaned into it and started munching away!

Show Mommy how the piggies eat

Other than that, the only Halloween-themed activities that day revolved around our getting the house ready for our own Halloween party, which was to be held the next afternoon. We stayed home and watched a Halloween movie (Coraline, already a family favorite after just discovering it last year). While watching, we put together some small Halloween crafts, and set up the house to receive our guests the following afternoon.

 

Before we could have a party at our house, though, the kids had a half-day at school on Halloween. That meant it was time for the annual Halloween parade, when the girls got to show off their costumes to all the other kids. They were all very excited.

 

 

Aurora got to march in the parade a bit with her sisters

After this half-day, we had a little time to crash at home; then, it was time to make final preparations for our party!

There ended up being a lot more food than this

For many years, I'd hoped to throw a huge Halloween party at our house. When I was eight or nine years old, my parents threw a huge Halloween party; we made a haunted house in our basement, served a ton of food, and built many happy memories (like some of our friends running from the house screaming; it was awesome!). Anyway, since Halloween fell on a Friday this year, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to invite a large crowd, serve tons of food, and have a bunch of games & activities.

But I ended up scaling back on that idea, for several reasons. First and most important, the death of my father-in-law left our family exhausted emotionally and physically; I just wasn't up to throwing a gigantic party. Secondly, it seemed like a lot of other people had the same idea we had! There were a lot of parties going on that night, throughout the whole neighborhood. In addition, the local high school had its Homecoming game on Halloween night, so there were even more teens than usual out and about. It was a very happening Halloween night, and my party was just a drop in the bucket.

So, I ended up scaling it down somewhat and making it a simple "pre-trick-or-treat potluck." I still made some food (and provided the yummy "witches' brew" punch in the pictures above), but everyone else brought goodies too. The older kids got to watch the movie The Nightmare Before Christmas upstairs, the adults ate food and visited downstairs, and the young kids got to make a simple Halloween craft and run about underfoot.

Not as many people came as I had originally expected, but we still had a good crowd, and they brought great food! It turned out to be more enjoyable than it might have been, had I stressed out over the planning of a bigger party. It took me most of the next day to clean, but it was worth it.

Finally...after all the build-up over the last week...and after all our party guests had left...it was go time!

Booyakasha! (That's the new Turtles' battle cry)

And by "go," I mean "trick-or-treat time." As you can see, I went as a "ninja turtle (sort of)" for Halloween. True, Lorelai and I both went as Michelangelo...but he's my favorite Turtle, and I wasn't about to get a different Turtle's T-shirt just so Lorelai and I could be coordinated for one night!

Here's what our house looked like on Halloween night, just in time for trick-or-treaters

Our own neighborhood was a little on the quiet side, but we drove around and explored several neighborhoods throughout the evening. The neighborhood north of us had constructed a "haunted bridge" (really a walkway over a wash). The homeowners covered the whole thing with tarp, installed a bunch of scary hanging monsters and strobe lights, and let kids wander through for free. My girls must have run across the haunted bridge a dozen times, giggling all the while.

Later that night, when trick-or-treating was done (and Aurora had been taken home and put to bed), Lorelai, Celeste, and myself headed out to check out a few of the most spooky houses in our town. One home even had a full "haunted" house set up (complete with strobe lights, full decor, and plenty of costumed actors), with donations for the Make A Wish Foundation being accepted in lieu of an entrance fee.

All through October, Lorelai had been begging me to go to a real haunted house...as in, a professionally run haunted house, featuring real actors and sets, and real scares! Besides sounding very expensive (some of those haunted houses cost a pretty penny), I was unconvinced my sweet, still-young daughters could handle that kind of adrenaline rush. I know this sounds odd, but I'm actually glad some houses went all-out on their Halloween decorations. It gave my daughters an opportunity to test their mettle in a place closer to home, less threatening, and cheaper. It also gave me a chance to observe how they react to scary, haunted-house type stuff. Perhaps when they're teenagers, I'll consider letting them have a go at a professional haunted house...until then, I hope these "little" scares will satisfy their adrenaline cravings.

That Make A Wish haunted house I mentioned? They ran through it five times each. By the end, all the costumed "creeps" inside were high-fiving them and the girls were giggling with delight. In another neighborhood, they were mesmerized by a haunted garage, which featured talking body bags, leaping spiders, and all manner of gory decor. They stayed and watched it for about 15 minutes; they were fascinated by it, even if they were scared.

I don't know what to think about my girls' taste for the gruesome...does it mean I'm making them numb to spiritual things? Am I encouraging them in cultivating unhealthy appetites? Is it just a phase they are going through? Maybe it's too early to tell. However, seeing them brave their way through a haunted house, then go back for more, tells me that at least my girls like to face their fears and do their best to overcome them. Maybe that is ultimately a good thing; hopefully they can take that skill and apply it outside of a Halloween setting. I hope I can encourage them in that.