halloween

Whew. That's how I feel right about now. Things have been go go go busy busy busy for the last few weeks and I feel like I can finally take a big deep breath and gear myself up for the oh so wonderful holidays ahead!

Although things have been crazy around here it has been filled with SO many super fun things -

Last week for Family Home Evening the girl's picked out pumpkins and then got to decorate them. Brooklyn was very particular and knew exactly what she wanted her jack-o-lantern to look like - she even drew the face on for Justin to cut out for her! Both the girls had a good time but I can already tell that although Addy painted away on her pumpkin there is no way we're getting away that easy with her next year - she's was yelling carve! carve! carve! the rest of the night ;)

The night before was when the first of our Halloween festivities began. Our good friends started a fun tradition a couple of years ago to make gingerbread haunted houses. We use small cartons, frosting, graham crackers, and tons of candy - and everyone just goes to town!!!

It was a gorgeous October day! There was lots of snacking, licking, and laughing going on. And here are the finished beauties - definitely a fun thing we look forward to doing every year!

Another tradition we have is to go to a local forest to go trick or treating. Every year they put on fun themed trick-or-treating stations. This year was our 3rd year and they did a Dora theme - my girl's were in love, got to dress-up for the first time this Halloween, and couldn't stop talking about their adventures with Diego and Swipper!!! (although my princesses are true beauties remind me NEVER to do wigs again!!!)

The weekend came in the blink of an eye and we headed down to the temple for a youth temple trip and then quickly headed back home to get everything bought, set up, and ready to go for the the chili cook-off and trunk-or-treat at our church - which Justin (i.e. me too) were in charge of. It ended up being a huge success with lots of people, yummy food, and tons of fun!

So fun that this is how our night ended - and we ALL slept in until 9:30 Sunday morning!!!

Finally, the big day was here! Brooklyn got to dress-up for a super fun day at school with trick-or-treating stations and lots of fun singing and dancing. Addy and I got to come and join in the festivities but unfortunately my camera battery was completely dead and I didn't get any pictures of my cute girls and all of Brooklyn's cute friends and teachers!

Afterwards we headed home for a quick festive Halloween lunch of mummy dogs and witch's fingers - the girls' weren't in love but I happily ate it up!

Later that day we headed to our local library. Which is absolutely the best place ever! We started with a fun class. Brooklyn was super excited when she saw friends from her preschool. She spent the entire time sitting with them while they sang and danced together!

Addy and I sat with other friends and danced the class away. Addy promptly joined the teacher at the front of class and spent the entire rest of the time at the front dancing!

Finally the best part came along...Halloween night. We started off going to see some of our neighbors and then headed over to a friend's house to go trick-or-treating together. They had rented surrey's and we all jumped on and biked our way through the neighborhood. It was quite a sight and tons of fun! We were stopped several times from people wanting info, asking to take pics, telling us what a good idea it was, etc. I'm so glad we did it and definitely need to do it again!

The night ended with delicious donuts, lots of empty candy wrappers, and more than enough memories to last until next year!