Halloween was on the haunt as quickly as ever. Gryffy wanted to be Luke Skywalker, and Lorelei saw this cat costume at Party City she couldn't live without. Grammy took them shopping, and voila--costumes, check!
(I'm growing to appreciate simplicity around the holidays more and more, folks. Forget all that Pinterest-pressure and those starry when-I-have-kids-one-day dreams of toiling endlessly over the sewing machine to make their costumes fit for an NYC catwalk--if the kids are happy, I'm happy. And just look at their precious beaming faces!)
Our annual neighborhood Halloween parade and carnival was a hit!
I'm not usually a germ freak, except when it comes to things that touch people's mouths. I made sure we were among the very first to bob for apples.
Seeing all the slobber my kids left behind fishing those apples out wasn't very appetizing, but they sure loved every minute of that age old tradition!
Gryffy and Dylan rockin' their costumes on the big rocks.
It's also tradition for Lorelei to design her pumpkin on the computer before we help her cut it out. But this year, we let her loose with the tools. Our artist child was in heaven!
See how happy she is? Anything to get her hands messy!
Mr. Gryff, however, would have nothing to do with those nasty pumpkin guts. He's very conscientious about cleanliness and order. Love that about him.
But he was pleased as pumpkin pie about the Angry Birds stencil.
This might be my favorite family tradition: Ever since they were wee babies, the kids have planted pumpkin seeds in the ground after carving their pumpkins. Early the next morning, during that mystical witching hour, we check the yard to discover baby pumpkins growing from those magical seeds!
On Halloween day, I was zipping between Gryffin's and Lorelei's classrooms to play games and watch the school parade.
I'm room parent for Lorelei's class, which means I was in charge of games.
TP Mummies is forever my favorite--simple and always a hoot!
Our neighbor Roman was sweet to snap a family pic.
(Thank you to the families who BOO'ed us this year! We love passing along a good Ding-Dong-Ditch!)
Here Roman (Captain America) is, with Lulu.
So lucky to have such great neighbor kids!
And we love that our other new neighbors are Halloween fanatics! We've begun a new tradition: the moms take the kids trick-or-treating around the lower cul-de-sac, then the dads carry on while we huddle around a bonfire with hot drinks and pass out candy.
Next year, we're recruiting the other neighbors to make it an all-out bonfire bash!
It was fun to pull out the copper fire pit Mark got me for my birthday this year since our backyard is in disarray. Such a fun way to spend Halloween night (especially when little Gryffy comes home a bit early to snuggle with his Momma).
Happy Halloween!
